Alcohol & Alcoholism Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 73, 2004
© Medical Council on Alcohol 2004; all rights reserved
BOOK REVIEW
Alcoholism, Drug Addiction, and the Road to Recovery
Alcoholism, Drug Addiction, and the Road to Recovery. By Barry Stimmel. The Haworth Medical Press, New York, 2002, 414 pp., £24.39. ISBN 0-7890-0553-0.This book is highly relevant to a wide range of readers. It would enable those with little or no background in science or health care to understand often complex issues of drug use—an objective stated in the preface—but it is also likely to be of immense value to health care professionals, including addiction specialists. Both clinicians and teachers will find it a useful resource.
The author has chosen not to provide references in this text, but rather, bibliographies for each chapter. There is inevitably uneven coverage, although one's view of this will depend on personal bias. Motivational enhancement therapy for instance gets barely a mention, and in an otherwise excellent overview of substitution therapy for opiate addiction there is no mention of injectable methadone or physeptone as used in the UK. Controlled drinking receives about half a page. Also some will question the statement ‘almost everyone involved in treating alcoholism now considers it a disease'. Again many would replace ‘An inpatient setting for [alcohol] detoxification isn't always necessary’ with a statement that alcohol detoxification can usually be carried out effectively and safely without admitting the patient.
The epidemiological data and legal details are largely North American. But other nationals should definitely not be put off. This is a clearly written, up-to-date, relatively comprehensive book that covers biological, social and psychological aspects in a balanced way. It has a wealth of useful information. Indeed it ventures into many nooks and crannies that other books by-pass. Among the nuggets were: early signs of drug use, addressing drug abuse in your children, a timetable for detection of drugs in the urine by immunoassay, a comparison of treatment effectiveness for drug dependency and other chronic disorders, decriminalization versus legalization, sections on caffeine, nicotine, multiple drug use, pregnancy and the new-born, drugs and sports. I strongly recommend this book.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||