Addictions Clinical Textbook of Addictive Disorders Richard Frances, Sheldon Miller, Avram Mack, editors. New York (NY): The Guilford Press; 2005. 684 p. US$75.00. Reviewer rating: Excellent The Clinical Textbook of Addictive Disorders is must reading, not only for addiction clinicians but also for any mental health professional. The third edition of this book, published in 2005 by The Guilford Press, is revised and updated, with a few new chapters presenting recent advances in the field. The editors of this review are well-known in the community of addiction psychiatrists. Richard Frances and Sheldon Miller are among the founders of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, with years of clinical, teaching, and publishing experience; Avram Mack has a special interest in addictive disorders and has published on addictions before. The contributors to this volume include writers such as Marsha Linehan, Edward Khantzian, and Judith Beck, none of whom require additional introduction. The book is intended to be a review. It consists of 28 chapters, which are organized into 5 sections. Practically all areas of addiction medicine are covered. Despite the fact that most chapters are concise and focused, they are able to convey advances in the field and cite many recent studies. It is convenient for readers with not much time that each chapter is basically a separate entity and does not require reading of the entire book to be fully understood. Most of the chapters have a brief conclusion or summary, and all contain an extensive list of references for those who wish to further their knowledge. The first section (Chapters 1 and 2), Foundations of Addiction, attempts to present a simple neurobiological model of addictions and gives a very interestingly written historical overview of substance use, misuse, and approaches to treatment within a social and cultural context. In Part II (Chapters 3 and 4) the reader finds a modern perspective on the assessment of addictive disorders. Chapter 3 describes a currently recommended psychological assessment procedure that consists of 3 stages and mentions the most frequently used scales and diagnostic tools. Chapter 4 provides an excellent overview of the newest biological and laboratory methods for the testing of different addictive disorders. This particular chapter can be very helpful to emergency physicians. The next section, Part III (Chapters 5 to 10), gives a detailed description of specific disorders related to the use of all groups of substances, including alcohol, tobacco, opioids, marijuana, hallucinogens, club drugs, and stimulants. …