The Nature of Drug Dependence

Addressing the question "what is addiction?", this book derives from a workshop of North American and British experts in the field. It conveys a sense of the liveliness of the debate and the clash of ideas, and holds up the workshop as an example of interaction between scientists and sociologists.

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This book derives from a workshop which brought together North American and British experts to look at the crucial question - "What is dependence?". These ideas were examined in relation to both alcohol and drugs. The problems which the workshop tackled are of manifest scientific and social importance in their own right, but again added interest as an example of science fruitfully crossing traditional scientific boundaries. The book conveys the live sense of the workshop's debate and clash of ideas, and edited typescripts of the debate are included as well as chapters deriving from the background papers which were considered.