Addiction psychiatry

Addiction psychiatry founded in 1991, is a medical subspecialty within psychiatry that focuses on the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of people who are suffering from one or more disorders related to addiction. This may include disorders involving legal and illegal drugs, gambling, sex, food, and other impulse control disorders. Addiction psychiatrists are substance abuse experts. Growing amounts of scientific knowledge, such as the health effects and treatments to substance abuse, have led to advancements in the field of addiction psychiatry. These advancements in understanding the neurobiology of rewarding behavior, along with federal funding, has allowed for ample opportunity for research in the discipline of addiction psychiatry. Addiction psychiatry is an expanding field, and currently there is a high demand for substance abuse experts in both the private and public sector.

Addiction psychiatry is a relatively new subspecialty of psychiatry. As of October 1991, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), with support of the American Psychiatric Association, established a "Committee on Certification of Added Qualifications in Addiction Psychiatry." This was a way to identify the most educated and experienced psychiatrists in the profession; however, it was not until 1993 when "Addiction Psychiatry" was granted sub-specialization status. Years later, in 1997 the committee's board of trustees along with the ABMS renamed the committee "Committee on Certification in the Subspecialty of Addiction Psychiatry". The committee became more geared toward developing the subspecialty of addiction psychiatry. As of 1997, there were only 13 addiction psychiatry programs that the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education(ACGME) recognized. Currently the ACGME recognizes 45 different residency programs in the United States.

In order to become a certified addiction psychiatrist one must first have completed medical school and further be certified as a general psychiatrist. Next, general psychiatrists must commit themselves to an ACGME-accredited residency in addiction psychiatry. The addiction psychiatry residencies are one-year programs set in a hospital or clinical setting where general psychiatrists learn how to diagnose and treat substance-use disorders as well as potential coexisting psychiatric disorders. After completing one of these residency programs addiction psychiatrists are then capable of being hired in either a private or public setting.