INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL SECTION - RESEARCH ON THE NATURE AND TREATMENT OF ALCOHOLISM - DOES ONE INFORM THE OTHER

Although the 2 topics of the nature and treatment of alcoholism have b oth been investigated for years, they are just recently beginning to i nterface with and complement one another. This special section address es the interface from both perspectives and covers content areas that touch on current issues, research and treatment trends, and controvers ies in the alcohol field. The first 2 articles focus on the nature of alcoholism with commentary on implications for treatment, and the seco nd 4 articles shift to examine research on treatment of alcohol proble ms, with implications for understanding the nature of alcoholism. This introductory article describes the special section, summarizes the ar ticles in the section and integrates the information to discuss areas of increasing interface between research on the nature and treatment o f heterogeneous substance abuse problems.