Biological Aspects of Alcoholism: Implications for Prevention, Treatment, and Policy (WHO Expert Series on Neuroscience, 4)

This book is an essential resource for anyone involved with the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of alcoholism. It presents a state-of-the-art review regarding how alcohol affects the brain and the body, and this biological perspective is integrated with the effects of major environmental factors in the lives of alcoholics.
This material provides further insight on why people become alcoholic, the detailed biological destruction which is generated by this behavior, and the merits and drawbacks of alternative treatments.
Important technical issues are explained in detail, such as the role of genetics, ethnic differences, special needs of women drinkers, the psychobiology of craving, and the metabolic consequences of alcoholism. Also discussed are the neurological impacts of alcohol, and important recent results on the pharmacotherapy of alcohol abuse.
Therefore this volume is invaluable for a wide range of treatment professionals, health care and law enforcement managers and policy makers, as well as for researchers involved with the biomedical and psychosocial consequences of alcoholism. Medically-oriented lay readers will also find this book to be a refreshingly direct and authoritative review of the field.