''Previous volumes have been well received and the present work should be no exception....In a field where advances contribute to the widening gap between clinician and researchers, this volume serves to close that distance.''-Alcoholism-Clinical and Experimental Research, from a review of a previous volume

This volume is the eighth in the Research Advances Series and the fifth published by Plenum Press. The purpose of the series is to review new work in rapidly changing fields. We do not expect reviews to cover the whole field of work on alcoholism and addiction. Nor do we expect that they will be like annual reviews covering all work in a delimited field. Our reviews are designed to explore only the most exciting parts of the total field and to focus on conclusions that can be made about them. The series publishes one volume each year. Volume 8 is an omnibus rather than a theme volume in that...

Over the last decade the world has experienced a growing interest in problems associated with the nonmedical use of drugs. This interest has corresponded to a real growth in the extent, diversity, and social impact of the use of alcohol and drugs in many societies. As a result, the amount of research and writing on the subject of drug problems has greatly increased, and it has become very difficult for one individual to keep up with all the relevant literature. There is thus an acute need in the field for critical reviews that assess current developments, and the present series is intended to...

Over the last decade the world has experienced a growing interest in problems associated with the nonmedical use of drugs. This interest has corresponded to a real growth in the extent, diversity, and social impact of the use of alcohol and drugs in many societies. As a result, the amount of research and writing on the subject of drug problems has greatly increased, and it has become very difficult for one individual to keep up with all the relevant literature. There is thus an acute need in the field for critical reviews that assess current developments, and the present series is intended to...

This, the ninth volume in the series, appears some 13 years after the first. Like most of its predecessors, Volume 9 is deliberately eclectic, covering a range of topics that the editors think worthy of inclusion. Some of the chapters, such as the review of the literature on benzodiazepines, represent areas that have received relatively little attention in previous volumes-largely because the literature has not previously been "ripe" for review. Others represent literatures that have been reviewed in the past but which continue to advance in sufficient measure that their ripening never...

This book continues the series of reviews of research advances first published in 1974. The editors' aim here is to present critical and integrative reviews by internationally recognized scholars of areas in which there has been much recent research. In this task we have been greatly helped by the staff of Plenum Press and the Advisory Panel listed at the front of this volume. Several members of the Panel have retired: Dr. W.M.D. Paton, Dr. K. Bruun, Dr. K.F. Killam, and Dr. J .R. Seeley. Dr. Klaus Makela has accepted our invitation to join the Panel. Unfortunately, one member of the Panel,...