"This book provides a refreshingly practical guide to help you navigate your way through competing theories, data, and dogma on how addiction can best be prevented and treated. Building on his previous work, Dr. DiClemente now helps us understand not only how people recover, but also how they develop addiction. His application of the transtheoretical model to complete the cycle of change is both intellectually satisfying and useful in planning and evaluating preventive interventions. Clinicians will be better able to explain to clients and families how addiction develops, and empower clients to change with dignity and compassion. Students using this book as a text in psychology courses or graduate studies in addiction will appreciate how the transtheoretical structure makes sense of the multiplicity of theories and approaches in the field. Researchers will enjoy the challenge to reexamine their models in light of Dr. DiClemente's synthesis of data."

--David Mee--Lee, MD, Criteria Committee, American Society of Addiction Medicine

"This volume combines cutting--edge research, theory, and practice....Based on the transtheoretical model, the book offers an innovative, integrative approach to understanding addiction and change. It is a welcome contribution for those who teach and those who treat addictions."

--James O. Prochaska, PhD, Cancer Prevention Research Center, University of Rhode Island

"This is the most complete description of the transtheoretical model of intentional behavior change to date. The volume's exploration of the interacting dimensions of change in both the evolution and resolution of addictive behaviors offers highly useful implications for researchers as well as clinicians."

--Sandra A. Brown, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego

Publisher Web Site, August, 2003

While the stages-of-change model is widely known as a framework for understanding recovery, less sustained attention has been given to the stages of becoming addicted. From Carlo DiClemente, codeveloper of the transtheoretical model, this book offers a panoramic view of the entire continuum of addictive behavior change. Illuminated is the common path that individuals travel as they establish and reinforce new patterns of behavior, whether they are developing an addiction or struggling to free themselves from one. Particular attention is given to how issues in multiple areas of life functioning--including relationships, beliefs and attitudes, enduring personal characteristics, and social systems--interact with change processes in addiction and recovery. Offering a unique perspective on the pathways into and out of addiction, the book addresses crucial questions of why, when, and how to intervene to bolster recovery in those already addicted and reach out effectively to people at risk.

Key Features:

• First complete explanation of addictions in terms of the stages-of-change theory.
• DiClemente is a co-originator of the transtheoretical model and the winner of a Robert Wood Johnson Innovators in Substance Abuse award.
• Relevant to all addictions; e.g., drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, nicotine.
• Strongly research-based but accessible writing, including cases and explanatory tables.

I. Understanding Addictions in Terms of Change

1. Models of Addiction and Change
2. The Process of Human Intentional Behavior Change
3. The Well-Maintained Addiction: an Ending and a Beginning

II. The Road to Addiction: The Journey Through The Stages Of Addiction

4. Exploring the Precontemplation, Contemplation, and Preparation Stages of Becoming Addicted
5. Repeated and Regular Use: Moving from Preparation to Action on the Road to Addiction

III. Quitting an Addiction: The Journey Through the Stages of Recovery

6. Precontemplation for Recovery: Cultivating Seeds for Change
7. The Decision to Change: Moving from the Contemplation to the Preparation Stage of Recovery
8. Preparing for Action: Creating a Plan
9. Taking Action to Change an Addiction
10. The Long Haul: Well-Maintained Recovery

IV. Designing Interventions to Match the Process of Change

11. Prevention: Interfering with the Process of Becoming Addicted
12. Designing Interventions for Recovery
13. Research on Addiction and Change