In his preface, Ed Day highlights that this book originated in articles written in the peer-reviewed psychiatry literature for a generic audience of consultant psychiatrists. This stimulated me to think whether the book will serve as a useful tool for my generic psychiatry colleagues. Our paths frequently cross as in our daily professional lives we constantly encounter problems relating to problematic drug or alcohol use. I am convinced that this book is a ‘must have’ for every consultant psychiatrist. However, the value of this book is for a much wider audience. I reflected upon how it would feel to be a junior doctor considering a career in addiction psychiatry. Would this book reassure me that it is possible to pursue a fulfilling career in providing professional, evidence-based clinical care to people whose drug use has become a problem to themselves, their families and wider society? Without doubt I am sure that it does have the potential to fulfil such a function. There are few books that offer both a wide scope (breadth) and an exhaustive reservoir of knowledge (depth) by combining the current evidence base with diverse expert clinical knowledge and experience. This book has managed to achieve these aims in a style that is readable, engaging, yet authoritative

There is another readership, however, to whom I would unreservedly recommend this book, namely that of my own professional peoplegroup, primary care clinicians. One of the chapters alludes to the recent growth in primary-care-based drug treatment and another points out that, although psychiatry services for those with mental ill-health and drug dependence are largely separate, in primary care such comorbid conditions are managed by the same clinician. If primary care has traditionally offered the drug treatment field strengths of pragmatism and integrated clinical care for those with comorbid conditions, then there is much that we can receive in return from our colleagues in specialist addiction psychiatry services. This book offers us an authoritative collection of the evidence, and I would like it to sit on the bookshelves of all my primary care colleagues who have clinical responsibility for those who use drugs in a problematic fashion.