Summary

Over the last decade, addiction has affected millions of people throughout the United States, and the numbers are growing. But what exactly is this phenomenon? Is it a moral failure? A poor choice? Or a medical disease? The United States’ two biggest addictions, cigarettes and alcohol, cost our health care system more than $100 billion every year. In addition, the United States has more drug offenders behind bars than any other industrialized country.

Addiction explores the many ways addiction touches, and has touched, the lives of every member of society, including users, non-users, and friends and relatives of users. This volume also attempts to explain addiction as a medical and behavioral phenomenon, define drug use and behaviors that can reach compulsive levels, and illustrate various ways to treat addictions.

Specifications

Color photographs and illustrations. Index. Glossary. Further reading. Sidebars. References. Web sites.

About the Author(s)

Vatsal G. Thakkar, M.D., is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Thakkar received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Tennessee in Memphis. He currently is the medical director for the Vanderbilt Mental Health Center where he spends his time supervising residents in outpatient practice and directing a course for second-year medical students. He specializes in the outpatient treatment of depression.

Foreword author Pat Levitt, Ph.D., is the director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development.