American Society of Addiction Medicine

History

ASAM has its roots in research and clinical traditions that pre-date its founding in the early 1950s, when Ruth Fox, M.D. began regular meetings with other physicians interested in alcoholism and its treatment at the New York Academy of Medicine. In 1954 these physicians established the New York City Medical Society on Alcoholism (later expanded as NYCMSA and Other Drug Dependencies) with Dr. Fox as its first President. "NYCMSAODD" was funded largely through the older Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration.^[2] As the organization grew, it was subsequently named the American Medical Society on Alcoholism (AMSA).

Interest in addiction medicine grew with the establishment of the NIDA/NIAAA Career Teacher Program for medical school faculty (1970) and the creation of the California Society for the Treatment of Alcoholism and Other Drug Dependencies as the California specialty society for physicians devoting significant time to treatment of chemically dependent patients. In 1982 the American Academy of Addictionology was incorporated and began efforts to achieve recognition for this new specialty within medicine. In April 1983 a single national organization was formed of these groups uniting within AMSA.

ASAM was admitted to the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates as a voting member in June 1988, and in June 1990 the AMA added addiction medicine (ADM) to its list of designated specialties.

In 1989, to reflect the Society's concern with all drugs of addiction as well as its interest in establishing addiction medicine as part of mainstream medicine, the organization was renamed the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM).

They also released their very well known Definition of Addiction, ASAM Criteria, ASAM Handbook of Addiction Medicine, and ASAM Principles of Addiction Medicine. Which are widely considered benchmarks in the Addiction Medicine field.

Founder

Ruth Fox, MD, (1895–1989) graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago. She and her colleagues dedicated their medical practice to the treatment of alcoholics, and introduced Antabuse, and promoted the use of Alcoholics Anonymous and other therapeutic modalities in the treatment of addiction. She was the first President of the Society (1954) and the first Medical Director of the National Council on alcoholism (1958). As a psychiatrist, she treated hundreds of patients and published widely on alcoholism. She lectured regularly to educate doctors and others about alcoholism as a disease.

The winner of a number of honors, she received, among others, the Citation of Merit award from the Malvern Institute for Psychiatric and Alcoholic Studies in 1963; the Silver Key award from the National Council on Alcoholism in 1972, and the annual award from the American Medical Society on Alcoholism in 1973.

She was a fellow of several groups including the American Psychiatric Association, the New York Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, the American Health Association and the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. Dr. Fox retired in 1979.

Mission

To increase access to and improve the quality of addiction treatment; to educate physicians (including medical and osteopathic students), other health care providers and the public; to support research and prevention; to promote the appropriate role of the physician in the care of patients with addiction; and to establish addiction medicine as a specialty recognized by professional organizations, governments, physicians, purchasers and consumers of health care services, and the general public.

Leadership

ASAM is governed by its officers, including the President, President-Elect, Immediate Past President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, the Executive Vice President/Chief Executive Officer, and the Board of Directors consisting of six Directors-At-Large, 10 Regional Directors and four ex officio positions. The elected officers serve a two-year term, while the Directors-at-Large and Regional Directors serve a four-year term.

Membership

ASAM is the leading professional society representing more than 3,700 physicians and associated professionals in the Addiction Medicine Field. Membership categories include regular, international, retired, early career physicians, resident, student and associate members (must be licensed to practice allopathic or osteopathic medicine). Members have access to textbooks, guidelines, the ASAM criteria, Continuing Education workshops, and live and online courses.

Annual conference and meetings

Part of ASAM's mission is to educate providers and the public about the practice of Addiction Medicine. The ASAM Annual Conference is the nation’s premiere event providing the latest innovations and scientific developments in Addiction Medicine. The annual conference has been renamed (formerly the ASAM Medical-Scientific Conference, nicknamed Med-Sci) to reflect some exciting new changes in format and structure to provide learning in a more interactive, casual and fun environment. The annual conference brings physicians, non-physicians and other professional of the addiction medicine field; past notable speakers have been Patrick Kennedy and Michael Botticelli (Director of ONDCP).

The 2016 ASAM Annual Conference was held April 14-17 in Baltimore.

The 2017 ASAM Annual Conference will be held in New Orleans.

The 2018 ASAM Annual Conference will be held in San Diego.

Courses

Through ASAM’s e-Learning Center, you can claim CME from past events or view on-demand web-based offerings, live webinars, and recorded live events.

Advocacy

ASAM advocates for parity in training, credentialing and privileging; access to treatment; and payment for treatment.

Positions

ASAM is critical of the current regulatory state of marijuana, holding that there is no such thing as appropriate medical use of the plant cannabis; in 2010, the society published a white paper calling for federal regulations to oversee research and development of cannabis based medicines and issued recommendations for state medical authorities to "...assure that physicians who choose to discuss the medical use of cannabis and cannabis-based products with patients...[a]dhere to the established professional tenets of prr patient care...";^[3] in 2012 the society stated that there is no "Medical marijuana" because the plant parts in question fails to meet the standard requirements for approved medicines, that Marijuana has many serious, negative health effects.^[4]

They have criticized the idea that video game playing can be addictive.^[5]

They have called for increased funding to treat addiction as a mental health disorder since the early 21st century^[6] and proposed in 2011 a new clinical description of addiction, describing addiction as a chronic brain chemistry disorder.^[7]

Journal of Addiction Medicine

The mission of Journal of Addiction Medicine (JAM), the official journal of ASAM is to promote excellence in the practice of addiction medicine and in clinical research as well as to support addiction medicine as a mainstream medical specialty. JAM functions independently from ASAM in terms of its editorial content.

Published six times per year, the Journal of Addiction Medicine is the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. It is currently ranked tenth in the Substance Abuse category of the 2012 Journal Citation Reports' Science Edition. The Journal is designed for all physicians and other mental health professionals who need to keep up-to-date with the treatment of addiction disorders. Under the guidance of an esteemed Editorial Board, peer-reviewed articles published in the Journal focus on developments in addiction medicine as well as on treatment innovations and ethical, economic, forensic, and social topics including:

The current Editor-in-Chief is Richard Saitz.

Other publications

Awards given