Book Review
Addiction 
Dual Diagnosis Richard N Rosenthal, editor. New York: Brunner-Routledge; 2003, 193 p. US$34.95.
Reviewer
rating*: Fair
Review by: Maurice Dongier, MD FRCPC
Verdun, Quebec
This little, somewhat overpriced book is a collection of 12 chapters. Each is a reprint of an article previously published in psychiatric or addiction journals between 1999 and 2001. It is the second volume of a series, Key Readings in Addiction Psychiatry, published by the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry.
The book addresses the important issue of cooccurring mental disorders and substance abuse in the broader sense; that is, it includes the entire spectrum from severe mental illness to lesser disorders such as anxiety and personality disorders. There is accumulating evidence of increasingly frequent substance abuse among psychiatric patients and of psychiatric comorbidity in those who abuse substances. Progress in pharmacologic manage- ment is best carried out in a context of engaging and retaining patients, of facilitating their motivation, of offering them options among specific psychological treatments, and of relapse prevention. Chapter 1, a study of illicit substance use in a large cohort of adult twins (from the Virginia Twin Registry), actually does not belong to the topic of this book, as no data on psychopathology are included.
Several of the contributions written by acknowledged experts are impressive and of high clinical and (or) theoretical significance. These include Chapter 3, “Are Psychiatric Disorders Primary or Secondary to Substance Abuse?”; Chapter 5, “Organisation of Dual Diagnosis Services”; Chapter 6, “Motivational Interviewing With Dual Diagnosis Patients”; Chapter 10, “Substance Use Disorders in Posttraumatic Stress Disorders”; and Chapter 12, “Predictive Value of Personality Assessment With Cloninger’s and Eysenck’s Questionnaires.” Some other chapters will appear of remote interest to clinician and scholars.
Not covered are issues of prognosis, epidemiology, and the role of primary care management, as well as important developments of the past decade, such as the documentation of the efficiency of various psychosocial, pharmacologic, and psychotherapeutic approaches. For instance, the effect of clozapine on craving for alcohol and nicotine in schizophrenia (nicotine dependence being one of the prevalent addictions in schizophrenia) may be related to the greater affinity of clozapine for D1 rather than D2 receptors, which thus modulates craving.
To deserve the designation of “key readings,” both the period covered (3 years) and the spectrum of contributing periodicals would have to be broadened (one-half of the selected articles come from the American Journal on Addictions, the Academy’s official journal). The selection of the most important publications in the field would have to encompass at least 10 years,and include articles from leading addiction journals that are absent from this collection.
*Reviewer
Rating Scale/ Échelle d’évaluation du réviseur
Excellent / Excellent
Very Good / Très bon
Good / Bon
Fair / Passable
Not recommended / Pas recommandé
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