Main description:

Health professionals in a range of settings are bound to meet clients with troubles related to drugs. The literature on their diagnosis and treatment is filled with successful, empirically based approaches, but also with controversy and hearsay. Separating the myths from the facts can be difficult. This text does so, providing trainees and professionals with a handy, concise guide for helping problem drug users build enjoyable, multifaceted lives using approaches based on decades of research. Readers will be able to improve their intuitions and clinical skills by adding an overarching understanding of drug use and the development of problems that translates into appropriate techniques for encouraging clients to change behavior themselves. Each strategy and process rests on maintaining a genuine, empathic, therapeutic relationship. The highly readable text explains not only what to do, but when and how to do it. Seasoned experts and those new to the field will welcome the chance to review the latest developments in guiding self-change for this intriguing, prevalent set of problems.

Contents:

1 Description of Problem Drug Use; 1.1 Terminology; 1.2 Definitions; 1.3 Epidemiology; 1.4 Course and Prognosis; 1.5 Differential Diagnosis; 1.6 Comorbidities; 1.7 Diagnostic Procedures and Documentation; 2 The Biopsychosocial Model of Drug Problems; 2.1 Interacting Components; 2.2 Initiation; 2.3 Regular Use; 2.4 Problem Use; 2.5 Treatment Outcomes; 3 Diagnosis, Assessment and Treatment Indications; 3.1 General Guidelines; 3.2 A Note on Taking Notes; 3.3 The Timeline Follow-Back (TLFB); 3.4 The Inventory of Drug Use Consequences (InDUC); 3.5 Motivation to Change; 3.6 Treatment History; 3.7 Social Support; 4 Methods of Treatment; 4.1 Overview; 4.2 Efficacy and Prognosis; 4.3 The Therapeutic Relationship as a Mechanism of Action; 4.4 Combinations of Methods; 4.5 Multicultural Issues; 5 Further Readings; 7 References; 8 Appendix.