Author Description

Despite persistent warnings from the medical profession about the health risks involved in cigarette smoking, millions of people continue to smoke cigarettes. With contributions from renowned experts, this work defines and explains nicotine addiction as a primary problem or disease, instead of as a habit or risk factor for other diseases. A comprehensive, clinical text on tobacco dependence, this book provides clinicians with essential information on how to diagnose and treat nicotine addicted patients. It also offers the medical, epidemiological and behavioral science backgrounds necessary for understanding the process and dynamics of tobacco dependence. Following the traditional format of medical texts, the book first covers etiology, pathogenesis and complications, then diagnosis and treatment, and finally public health and prevention. Part One presents an overview of the biological, psychological and social factors that contribute to nicotine dependence including such topics as a description of nicotine delivery systems, psychopharmacology, economics, natural history and epidemiology, mortality, morbidity, and environmental tobacco smoke exposure. The second part offers practical guidelines and tools for treating nicotine dependence and describes a stepped-care treatment model with brief interventions that can be easily integrated into routine medical practice. This section also covers the role of psychopharmacologic and formal treatment programs, the treatment of smokeless tobacco addiction, and treating nicotine dependence in pregnant women and in people with medical illnesses, other chemical dependencies, or psychiatric disorders. The last section focuses on worksite and community intervention programs and summarizes the research on smoking patterns and history in women, Blacks, Hispanics, youth, and older adults, and shows how intervention and prevention programs could be made more effective in these groups.