The American Society of Addiction Medicine Handbook of Addiction Medicine 2nd Edition PDF

Preface
Our goal with this handbook is to provide a practical, evidence-based resource
for generalists and addiction specialists. Addiction is a common medical prob-
lem and one of the leading causes of preventable morbidity and mortality
worldwide. We hope that this book will help clinicians feel more comfortable
with—and be more competent in—evaluating and treating their patients with
substance use disorders.
As primary care physicians who are also involved in addiction treatment,
we have incorporated addiction treatment into our own primary care practice,
and this has provided us with a unique perspective. We have also been involved
in teaching medical students and house staff about substance use disorders for
many years and have found that trainees’ attitude toward and comfort with
treating individuals with these problems can improve with experience and
positive role modeling. We hope that this experience has helped us present this
issue in a manner that “makes sense” for other clinicians. While patients with
substance use disorders are sometimes thought of as “difficult,” we have found
that treating these individuals is gratifying and that they are appreciative of
clinicians who show interest in them, are knowledgeable about the treatment
of their problems, and treat them with respect.
This handbook is an update of our 2015 handbook. In writing this hand-
book, we have had the opportunity to improve upon the previous edition and
to update the content. As with the previous edition, we have strived to make
it “evidence-based”; by this we mean that the information we present is based
on primary data, whenever possible. We have conducted an extensive review of
the literature in each of the topic areas we covered. Furthermore, we have done
our best to explicitly present our sources and to critically evaluate them. It is for
this reason that we have provided numerous references and have included addi-
tional details in the form of annotation for many of them.