THE ANATOMY OF ADDICTION

A lucid examination of addiction and treatment from a neurobiological perspective.

Mohammad, a veteran addiction specialist and founder of Inspire Malibu Treatment Center, believes alcohol and drug dependencies are the result of a chronic disease of the brain and offers alternative therapies for patients based on sound scientific data. His informative guidebook, rooted in brevity, begins with startling statistical data: 20 percent of the U.S. population abuses prescription medication, while alcohol use remains the third leading preventable cause of death, behind only smoking and obesity. The damning evidence is clear, the author cautions, but the treatment plans are not. Mohammad denounces the “extreme prejudice” exhibited toward people with addictions and hopes his book helps remove addicts and addiction from “the shadows of ignorance, fear, and stigma.” He attempts to do the same for readers with particularly engrossing chapters dispelling the 10 biggest myths of addiction and explorations of how drug and alcohol abuse affect the brain, the long-term consequences of substance dependency, and which detoxification treatments, from his perception, form the keys to effective recovery. Reiterating that not every person who experiments with drugs or alcohol will become an addict, Mohammad touts the miraculous benefits of Suboxone, a highly in-demand interventionary drug treatment. Still, he sees consistent failure in a majority of treatment avenues, deeming the rehabilitation industry “unscrupulous” and Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous potentially “dangerous” due to their adherence to complete medication abstinence. When seeking options, Mohammad encourages readers to seek out “evidence-based treatment” and bolsters his text with short case histories of atypical addicts whose experiences fall outside of the stereotypical boundaries of habituation. Though the author’s prose is plainspoken, instructive, and engaging, his chapters are cursory and address a myriad of interrelated addiction topics in brief informational snippets. Readers may want to look elsewhere for a more comprehensive, in-depth examination of the truths and misconceptions of chemical dependency.

A useful and educative primer introducing but not elaborating on a new clinical perspective on addiction.