The authors present practical advice and guidance on assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Among the many topics covered in detail are prenatal exposure to drug abuse and patterns of drug exposure and use among infants, children, and adolescents. Other chapters cover the effects of drug exposure and use on learning and memory and the relationship between drug exposure and use and various psychiatric disorders. Additional chapters focus on violence, sexual abuse, and crime; contributing social and psychological factors such as divorce, cults, familial patterns of drug use, and suicide; advantages and pitfalls of various prevention strategies; methods of clinically assessing the nature and extent of drug use; and the relative efficacy of current treatment methods. Appendixes provide a list of abbreviations used in the text; a directory of major treatment centers; and generic, trade, and common names of frequently abused drugs. References, tables, and figures