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Drugs and Addictive Behaviour: A Guide to Treatment (3rd edition)
Journal of Psychosomatic Research 57 (2004) 409
Book review Drugs and Addictive Behaviour: A Guide to Treatment (3rd edition) Hamid Ghodse, Cambridge University Press 2002. £39.95, 520 pages The increasing prevalence of drug misuse and its strong association with both mental and physical ill health means that every practicing psychiatrist will need access to up to date information about drug misuse. Professor Ghodse’s highly successful single author text is now in its third edition. Its style is informal and yet authoritative and it is fully referenced. Professor Ghodse has attempted (fairly successfully in my view) both to deal briefly with alcohol problems by the inclusion of a special chapter on the subject and to provide an international aspect so that the book can be used with profit by those from outside the UK. I looked up Khat, a drug used by some of my patients from Somalia, and found a detailed and well-referenced account of the drug and its effects. The book is not a text on dual diagnosis (comorbidity), although the problem is highlighted and briefly discussed. On matters of treatment and harm reduction, Professor Ghodse is an unabashed conservative. He is wary of some
0022-3999/04/$ – see front matter D 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2003.12.004
aspects of the harm reduction approach, as well as the widespread adoption of methadone maintenance for persons with opiate dependence. He does not mention the use of prescribed dexamphetamine as a treatment for amphetamine dependence. In summary then, this book remains the standard UK text on drug misuse and every psychiatrist should have access to a copy for reference. The world of drug misuse treatment in the UK is a broad church however, and treatment policy in the field of drug misuse is likely to remain a greater source of controversy and dispute among practitioners even than in the rest of psychiatry. Nonspecialists will need to be aware of these differences. Tim Garvey Department of Psychiatry Manchester Royal Infirmary Rawnsley Building, Oxford Road Manchester M13 9WL, UK Tel.: +44-0161-276-5405 Fax: +44-0161-276-5444 E-mail address: [email protected]
Book review Drugs and Addictive Behaviour: A Guide to Treatment (3rd edition) Hamid Ghodse, Cambridge University Press 2002. £39.95, 520 pages The increasing prevalence of drug misuse and its strong association with both mental and physical ill health means that every practicing psychiatrist will need access to up to date information about drug misuse. Professor Ghodse’s highly successful single author text is now in its third edition. Its style is informal and yet authoritative and it is fully referenced. Professor Ghodse has attempted (fairly successfully in my view) both to deal briefly with alcohol problems by the inclusion of a special chapter on the subject and to provide an international aspect so that the book can be used with profit by those from outside the UK. I looked up Khat, a drug used by some of my patients from Somalia, and found a detailed and well-referenced account of the drug and its effects. The book is not a text on dual diagnosis (comorbidity), although the problem is highlighted and briefly discussed. On matters of treatment and harm reduction, Professor Ghodse is an unabashed conservative. He is wary of some
0022-3999/04/$ – see front matter D 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2003.12.004
aspects of the harm reduction approach, as well as the widespread adoption of methadone maintenance for persons with opiate dependence. He does not mention the use of prescribed dexamphetamine as a treatment for amphetamine dependence. In summary then, this book remains the standard UK text on drug misuse and every psychiatrist should have access to a copy for reference. The world of drug misuse treatment in the UK is a broad church however, and treatment policy in the field of drug misuse is likely to remain a greater source of controversy and dispute among practitioners even than in the rest of psychiatry. Nonspecialists will need to be aware of these differences. Tim Garvey Department of Psychiatry Manchester Royal Infirmary Rawnsley Building, Oxford Road Manchester M13 9WL, UK Tel.: +44-0161-276-5405 Fax: +44-0161-276-5444 E-mail address: [email protected]