This review assesses Chile's public health system, highlights areas of strength and weakness, and makes a number of recommendations for improvement. The review examines Chile's public health system architecture, and how well policies are responding to significant population health challenges ...

The US-led war on drugs has failed: drugs remain purer, cheaper and more readily available than ever. Extreme levels of violence have also grown as drug traffickers and organized criminals compete for control of territory. This book points towards a number of crucial challenges, policy solutions and alternatives to the current drug strategies.

This Research Topic is the second volume of the "Community Series In Mental-Health-Related Stigma and Discrimination: Prevention, Role, and Management Strategies". Please see the first volume here. Despite the tremendous progress and successes achieved in diagnostics, therapy, and rehabilitation in psychiatry over the past few decades, the stigma towards mental health patients, their relatives and caregivers, and healthcare professionals is still present. Social stigma, in particular, represents a major obstacle to maintaining adequate mental health care. This increases reluctance to seek help delays patients' diagnosis and limits their compliance and adherence to treatment. In the long term, this reduces psychiatric rehabilitation effectiveness and causes a burden to healthcare providers and society alike. The main goal of this Research Topic is to evaluate the impact and role of stigma, in all its forms, on individuals with psychiatric disorders, their caregivers, and mental health providers.

The main aim of modern public health is to improve the quality of life and promote health for all. Public health deals with a wide range of individuals and collaborates with various organizations, departments, and agencies to improve health, forestall disease and promote well-being. The field of public health is constantly evolving in response to the needs of communities and populations that are facing demographic, epidemiological and technological challenges. To overcome these challenges, health professionals need to conduct research to generate evidence-based policies to improve the health of the community. Throughout the course of this book, a number of emerging and re-emerging public health issues from different countries are discussed and attempts are made to illustrate a balanced and evidence-based approach towards tackling major public health problems.

This book presents the main concepts and tools for the adoption of a biopsychosocial approach to psychotropic substances use and abuse management, prevention and treatment. It aims to provide resources for the design and implementation of health strategies and public policies to deal with psychotropic substances use in a way that fully recognizes the complex articulations between its biological, psychological and social aspects, taking these three dimensions into account to develop both health and social care policies and strategies aimed at psychotropic substance users. The book is organized in five parts. Part one presents a historical overview of psychotropic substances use throughout human history and introduces key concepts to understand the phenomenon from a biopsychosocial perspective. The next three parts approach psychotropic substances use from one of the interrelated dimensions of the biopsychosocial perspective: part two focuses on the neurobiological aspects; part three, on the psychological aspects; and part four, on the social aspects and its implications for public policy design. Finally, a fifth part is dedicated to special topics related to psychotropic substances use. Drugs and Human Behavior: Biopsychosocial Aspects of Psychotropic Substances Use is a guide to public agents, health professionals and social workers interested in adopting the biopsychosocial perspective to develop and implement both health and social care strategies and policies based on an interdisciplinary approach and aimed at dealing with psychotropic substance users in a more humanized way.

The Analysis of Drugs of Abuse Edited by Terry A. Gough, The Laboratory of the Government Chemist, Teddington, UK Analytical techniques based on separation processes, such as chromatography and electrophoresis, are finding a growing range of applications in chemical, biochemical and clinical laboratories: The aim of this series is to provide the analyst in these laboratories with well-focused books covering individual techniques and methods. This volume, devoted to the analysis of drugs which are commonly misused, provides a comprehensive source of up-to-date information. Detailed individual chapters are written by experts in the field describing various analytical techniques and applications. A special feature of the book is its emphasis on the complementary roles of chemist, law enforcer and the law maker in combatting drugs smuggling and the need for collaboration. This book will be a valuable reference for chemists, toxicologists and forensic scientists working in the field.