Customer Reviews

Substance Abuse Counseling: Theory and Practice

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just finished a graduate level course on substance abuse counseling, and this was my text. It's a pretty good textbook, with a lot of good information. Most of it is pretty dry reading though. Like a lot of graduate level textbooks, it's written in a dry yet information-dense style, which makes information retention challenging.

The best chapters by far are 1 - histories of various drugs of abuse, and 2 - their effects on the body.

I wasn't very fond of the sample cases they had in the text. I would have preferred a lot of "real life" case studies, with the interventions that were attempted, alternative interventions suggested by other experts, and outcomes.

This book provides a wealth of information on substance and alcohol abuse. It is an interesting and informative book. It gives an overview of common substances and their affects on the body. Case studies provide practical application for concepts presented in the book. Must have for those working in the substance abuse field or those who just want to learn more.

Substance Abuse Counseling: Theory and Practice covers the most common themes found in the area of addictions. As advertised by the title, it only covers substance abuse based addictions and says nothing about process addictions such as gambling, sex, etc. addictions. The first two chapters in the book focus on the various substance and their categories (i.e. depressants, stimulants, etc.). This could have been condensed into one small chapter, instead the authors chose to give information regarding each drug such as street names, tolerance issues, overdose, etc. The fact is that this information is readily available on the Internet and does not need to be covered in such detail as the book. The third chapter covers etiologies of substance use. The major theories are discussed: moral, disease model, genetic, behavioral, socio-cultural, and an integrated approach. The truth is, there is more theories covering addiction than these ones and they are not covered at all. The ones that are covered are given appropriate depth. The chapter on assessment was particularly rich with information. After this, the rest of the book is acceptable in it's depth and detail.

The readability of this book is nothing to shout about, though I have read worse text books. This book was good enough for me to keep it, though it is not one of the top books that is in my collection. I decided to keep it mostly because the content is unique in that there are not very many texts regarding addiction counseling out there that I am aware of.

The book is well written. It provides the reader with an easy reading experience while still providing the necessary information about substance abuse. I definately recommend it for anyone who is looking to learn more about substance abuse.

Book arrived within the time frame given and was in brand new condition as stated. I buy whatever books I can from Amazon, whether it be for my college courses or for recreational reading. They are always offered cheaper than I can get them at school and often price is competitive with used prices in my area.
About the book itself, so far our class has pointed out several typos. Whoever edited/proof read this book ws off their game!

While the information in this book might be accurate, I was horrified by the huge amount of typos. "Groals" of treatment, random parentheses, and other ridiculously obvious typos appear on almost every page. I know it has nothing to do with the subject of substance abuse counseling itself, but it really annoyed me. Hopefully the fifth edition will address these problems.

This book is useful in gaining information about the history of substances, the effects of substances on the brain and body and as a beginner's look from a clinical perspective of what's important to know in the field of substance abuse counseling.

This book is very easy to read and informational. Topics covered include the schedule, effects, and metabolic issues of drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and anabolic steroids.

This book gives a great overview of current practices in the field of substance abuse. It's readable, easy to understand and does an outstanding job of explaining issues relating to substance abuse counseling.

This was a great representation of substance and dependency addition, abuse. I had to read this book for my class and I really take you through a real experience. This book was very helpful and helped me understand addictions better.