Faculty Bibliography

The authors describe a program that is directed at assuring effective treatment and referral for alcoholic and addicted patients in a general hospital; the program was developed to assure maximal utlization of available addiction treatment facilities without adding to the hospital staff. Drawing on systems theory, the authors review both a pragmatic and a conceptual basis for psychiatric intervention with paraprofessional support to provide consultation to the general medical staff who treat alcoholic and addicted patients. They stress the feasibility of altering the nature of the hospital system to achieve more effective treatment for these patients

The author describes a model of intoxicant use based on altered states of consciousness and reviews his own and others' research on marijuana to illustrate the utility of this model, which is derived from both introspective reports and observed data. The relationship of social behavior and cognitive functioning to the 'intoxication state of consciousness' is discussed. This state of consciousness may have an adaptive value in engendering and stabilizing social cohesion. Possible treatment implications include cognitive labeling of cues that precipitate episodes of abuse, training for moderated drug use while patients are intoxicated, and providing abusers with altered consciousness through other means, such as meditation