Patients with Substance Abuse Problems: Effective Identification, Diagnosis, and Treatment

Edgar P. Nace and Joyce A. Tinsley

Praise for Patients with Substance Abuse Problems:

"The authors are clearly very passionate about their work and have produced a very readable and understandable overview of the biopsychosocial model of addiction and how to effectively recognize and treat addiction problems."
  —Ulster Medical Journal

"[W]ill be useful to any practicing physician—whether an internist or a family-medicine practitioner—and to general psychiatrists as well. . . . [E]xpresses the engaging voice of the authors rather than the diverse and less consistent orientations often found in edited mulitauthored books."
  —The New England Journal of Medicine

"[H]ighly readable and easily understandable. . . . [T]his book effectively communicates the 'state of the art' in addictions."
  —Journal of the American Medical Association

"[T]hese authors provide clear and concise information that can lead to better mastery of dynamics, terminology, recent medical advances, and strategic interventions with the difficult and diverse population of substance abusers. . . .

[T]imely, upbeat, and well-crafted. . . . The reader-practitioner is left with new tools and renewed optimism for working with challenging indviduals with challenging problems."
  —PsycCRITIQUES, American Psychological Association

“Two of the country's leading clinician-educators have teamed up to write a book that will be of use to any clinician who treats substance abusers.  This book is highly readable but sophisticated throughout. An outstanding contribution!"
  —Marc Galanter, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Director, Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, NYU School of Medicine.

Overview – Table of Contents

Whether or not you are trained as an addictions specialist, you will encounter addictions issues during the course of your career. Learning how to approach these patients should lessen the anxiety that comes from not knowing how to manage their problems. The book is a brief and practical introduction to diagnosis and intervention with substance-abusing clients. Each chapter uses brief vignettes to illustrate concepts, and tables or figures to clarify material. Two special populations are featured in this book: those at opposite ends of the age spectrum-adolescence and late life.

This book provides reasons for clinicians to be optimistic about their work with patients who abuse substances. In part, this optimism is based on improved scientific understanding of drug and alcohol dependence. Compared to the slow pace of research in the past, knowledge about the brain's role in addictive diseases has accumulated at a rapid pace over the past twenty years. The numbers of psychotherapeutic and pharmacologic interventions have grown as well. This book will be a handy guide for all those in clinical practice.

About the Authors

Edgar P. Nace, M.D. is a Board certified psychiatrist with added qualifications in addiction psychiatry and forensic psychiatry. He is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Medical Director at Turtle Creek Manor in Dallas, and in the private practice of adult psychiatry.

Joyce A. Tinsley, M.D. is a clinician in the Psychiatry Residency Program at Hartford Hospital's Institute of Living.

ISBN 10: 0-393-70511-0
ISBN 13: 978-0-393-70511-9
2007 / 224 pages / Hardcover