Drug-Dependence–A Chronic Medical Illness

Pivotal article by Tom McLellan, David Lewis, Charles O’brien, Herbert Kleber examining evidence and compares drug and alcohol dependence to other chronic medical illnesses, such as hypertension and asthma. Provides convincing evidence that physicians can adapt the patient care and monitoring strategies used in treatment of other chronic diseases to the treatment of chemical dependence. JAMA 2000; 284: 1689-1695.