Psychologic principles of substance abuse: a brief overview.

In this paper, a brief overview of the psychology of addictions was presented. It was emphasized that physicians should initiate treatment by first diagnosing their addicted patients with "substance dependence." This paper also emphasized the significance of relapse and relapse prevention, and a model of motivation and behavior change was presented. CT was described as a useful approach for understanding the psychology of addictions. And finally, the treatment of addictions was briefly discussed.