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Alcohol is one of the major risk factors for negative health outcomes worldwide. It accounts for more than 60 alcohol-related diseases, ranging from addiction, through liver cirrhosis, to cancer. Collectively, these conditions account for mortality and morbidity that make alcohol use one of the leading preventable causes of disability adjusted life-years (DALYs) lost globally. In this book, an international faculty covers all aspects of alcohol-related disorders, ranging from addiction/alcohol use disorders (AUD) to alcohol-related diseases of other organs such as liver, heart or cancer. A special focus is to reach out to primary care physicians who are in the front line of this major health problem. The book also provides an update for addiction specialists, as well as specialists in internal medicine, gastroenterology and hepatology. The book is divided into sections that include epidemiology, alcohol use disorders and addiction, alcohol-related liver disease, alcoholic hepatitis,primary care and interdisciplinary approaches and other alcohol-related diseases. Besides current diagnostic measures and treatment strategies, the book deals with the many underlying molecular and genetic mechanisms of alcohol toxicity. Novel insights include prospective data on all-cause mortality and the emerging major role of alcohol-mediated hemolysis and enhanced red blood cell turnover. The book also aims at guiding policy makers to handle the topic of alcohol in our society more responsibly.

This book provides a reference guide describing the current status of medication in all major psychiatric and neurological indications, together with comparisons of pharmacological treatment strategies in clinical settings in Europe, USA, Japan and China. In addition, it highlights herbal medicine as used in China and Japan, as well as complementary medicine and nutritional aspects. This novel approach offers international readers a global approach in a single dedicated publication and is also a valuable resource for anyone interested in comparing treatments for psychiatric disorders in three different cultural areas. There are three volumes devoted to Basic Principles and General Aspects, offering a general overview of psychopharmacotherapy (Vol. 1); Classes, Drugs and Special Aspects covering the role of psychotropic drugs in the field of psychiatry and neurology (Vol. 2) and Applied Psychopharmacotherapy focusing on applied psychopharmacotherapy (Vol. 3). These books are invaluable to psychiatrists, neurologists, neuroscientists, medical practitioners and clinical psychologists.

The current book is focussed on the Toll-like receptors (TLRs), which are the first pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) discovered in humans. For example, TLR4 was first recognized in humans in 1997 as a PRR recognizing the Gram-negative bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). This discovery revolutionized the field of innate immunity and filled the long-standing gap in the pathogen recognition by the immune system. Now, it is well established that humans have 10 (TLR1-TLR10) and mice have 12 (TLR1-TLR13) functional TLRs, excluding TLR10 that is present as a defective pseudogene. TLRs are present as both membrane-bound extracellular (TLR1, TLR2, TLR4, TLR5, TLR6, and TLR10) and intracellular (TLR3, TLR7, TLR8, and TLR9) PRRs in humans, which identify different pathogen or microbe-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs or MAMPs) and death or damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) released by the host cells. A lot of development in the TLR biology has occurred in last 24 years since there first discovery in humans.The book is intended to describe their role in the host defence, human reproduction, non-infectious sterile inflammatory conditions, including brain immunity and cerebrovascular diseases, signaling mechanisms, adaptive immunity, and their targeting for drug development.

Substance misuse and addictions are a public health issue. They affect the well-being of each community and nation as a whole. It is, therefore, necessary to identify, educate, and treat individuals who are addicted to substances. Policies and procedures go hand-in-hand with public health education and safety. The science behind the public health issues of one drug may be applicable to other drugs as well. However, marshalling all of the aforementioned information into a single source is somewhat difficult due to the wide array of material. The Editors address this by compiling the research in this single reference work that serves as a'one-stop-shopping'approach to everything readers need to know about the scientific basis of public health and addictions and agents of misuse.Apart from active agents that have a plant or chemical basis, there is a need to consider that there are other forms of addiction which may havecommon modes of causality or prevention. These include food addiction, gaming, gambling, and other non-drug addictions. These types of addiction may be related to the addiction of drugs.The Handbook of Substance Misuse and Addictions: From Biology to Public Health offers a holistic understanding of the relationship between public health and substance misuse. The text provides a common platform upon which other forms of addiction or substance misuse can be understood and treated. Addiction processes involve understanding the biological processes as well as behavior, psychology, sociology, and public health, all of which are interlinked. This Handbook is a useful reference for lecturers, students, researchers, practitioners, and other professionals in public health, addiction science, epidemiology, health education, health promotion, and health sciences.