SUBSTANCE MISUSE AND ADDICTION MEDICINE From Neuroscience to Public Health

Addiction is rarely explained by a single substance, brain pathway, or social circumstance. Understanding it requires connecting biological science with clinical assessment, mental health, lived experience, and the conditions that shape access to care.
Substance-related presentations can involve overlapping risks and uncertain histories. A person taking medication as prescribed may develop physiological dependence without a use disorder; another may experience significant impairment without obvious withdrawal. Healthcare learners therefore need more than lists of drugs and symptoms. They need a framework for interpreting patterns, deciding what needs urgent attention, and understanding treatment options and their limits.
This multidisciplinary handbook offers a structured route through these questions, moving from definitions and neuroscience to substance-specific conditions, evidence-informed interventions, and public health strategies. It helps readers distinguish established knowledge from emerging hypotheses while keeping clinical safety, respectful language, and practical limitations in view.

• Clarify the differences among substance use, harm, tolerance, dependence, and substance use disorders.
• Connect brain systems, craving, learning, genetics, trauma, and social conditions to clinical reasoning.
• Review assessment, screening, co-occurring disorders, and safety concerns surrounding intoxication or withdrawal.
• Explore evidence-informed medications, behavioral therapies, integrated care, and continuing support.
• Understand overdose prevention, harm reduction, public health surveillance, prevention, and policy.
• Use chapter syntheses and reference appendices to support academic review and clinical discussion.