Addiction Medicine

Addiction Medicine refers to the branch of medicine concerned with the treatment of addictions.  The doctors who have trained and studied in the areas of prevention, and treatment of Addiction and associated diseases are medical specialists within these areas.

 

On 16 December 2009, The Hon Nicola Roxon MP, Commonwealth Minister for Health and Ageing recognised Addiction Medicine as a medical speciality for the purpose of inclusion in the Australian Medical Council AMC) List of Australian Recognised Medical Specialities.

 

The Addiction Medicine focus is on

  • Detoxification
  • Rehabilitation
  • Harm reduction
  • Abstinence-based treatment
  • Individual and group therapies
  • Treatment of withdrawal-related symptoms
  • Acute intervention
  • Long term therapies

 

The speciality of Addiction Medicine crosses over into other fields of General Practice, Public Health, Psychiatry, Psychology, Social Work, Mental Health Counselling, internal medicine as well as other areas.

 

 

References

http://www.dpmp.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/dpmp/resources/NATIONAL.pdf

https://www.racp.edu.au/page/australasian-chapter-of-addiction-medicine/about-the-chapter-of-addiction-medicine/