In a world of electronic media and evidence-based medicine, the role of the single-author textbook has been questioned. Once a staple educational tool for trainees and practising psychiatrists alike, such books are said to lag behind current practice and so are no longer useful reference sources. This issue has been acknowledged in the latest edition of this well-known British textbook on drug misuse. As a nod to evidence-based medicine, references have been included in the text for the first time and, overall, this new approach provides a useful stimulus to further study. However, this is not the reason that this book deserves a place on the bookshelves of anyone with an interest in helping to tackle the problems of drug misuse.

The author is well-known to British and international audiences for his contributions to both the research and political agendas within the drug treatment field. However, it is the wealth of clinical experience that he conveys in the text that I found most useful. Not only does the book contain standard chapters on assessment, complications of drug misuse and methods of intervention, but also it adapts this information to real-life settings. A chapter devoted to ‘special problems’ covers practical issues such as drug-dependent patients on medical wards, in the accident and emergency department and in police custody. An excellent description of the various biological and psychological modalities of treatment is accompanied by ‘fine detail’ such as advice to give patients about driving licences or the legal implications of travelling abroad with prescription medication. The section on the drug-misusing doctor is both relevant and timely.

The book is unashamedly British in its outlook, but this is essential in a field where many key issues are not easily transported from elsewhere. However, the author is able to draw on his extensive knowledge of international issues in the substance misuse field to enrich the sections on epidemiology, the prevention of drug misuse and the law and drug control policies. This is not the text to turn to for a detailed description of the neurobiology of drugs of misuse, or for an account of genetic theories of causation. Furthermore, despite its title, the book does not stray much beyond addiction to prescription and illegal drugs, although the inclusion of a chapter on alcohol is relevant in the current climate. However, when it comes to applying the evidence to the real-life clinical situations that face a psychiatrist working with people who use illegal drugs, this book reaches the parts that a systematic review-driven approach cannot always reach.