For many years I have been looking to buy a book with a title such as this one, and I am delighted that it has finally arrived on the market. This is the only book available in the market dedicated to the topic of substance misuse in older adults. This book is about ‘everything’ you need to know in the field of substance misuse disorders in the elderly population. This book costs £65 and is good value for money.

Be it a medical textbook or a novel, for me reading a book is like travelling to a new town; I like my books to tell me a story or paint a picture. I do judge my books by the cover and other various factors such as layout, readability and digestibility, ease to refer back if I need any specific information, cost–benefit, so on and so forth. As soon as I opened this book, the first image that came to my mind was of a fantastic restaurant with an enormous menu and it takes some time in my mind to categorise these chapters. This book is similar to buying a hi-tech gadget, it takes a while to get to know the controls, and once it is done, it is more fun than you can imagine. The first chapters of most textbooks are usually about epidemiology, and I was quite surprised to see the first chapter of this book discussing capacity and consent; and to be honest I would rather start this book from Chapter 5 and then go to Chapters 1–4.

I realised instantly that this book requires my absolute attention, plus a pencil and lots of paper to take notes. This is not the kind of book which I can read whilst in a busy outpatient clinic or whilst on-call or in a café. This is a really strong concoction of hardcore facts from so many fantastic authors. It took me roughly 40 hours to finish reading and taking notes, which is quite a lot of time in my standards. It gives you a thorough overview of the subject, nicely packed in 418 pages, from ‘contents’ to ‘index’. It does make you feel that this book is slightly over organised when you look at ten pages of ‘contents’. This book has been divided into eight sections comprising 27 chapters, roughly three or four chapters in each section, written by spectrum of 47 highly decorated experts.

Chapters 6–9 discuss the different epidemiology and demography of using cigarettes, alcohol and illicit drugs in adults aged 50 and older, and these chapters are perfect for students, junior psychiatrists or lecturers who are looking for data to add to their presentations or dissertations. I am probably very old fashioned, but by the time I reached Chapter 12, I had already slowed down and was looking for some pictures, or something to rekindle my interest. Authors of this book knew the feeling of ‘mid-book crisis’ and, by adding some very interesting clinical presentations (case vignettes), helped me pass that feeling. Chapter 13 was relevant and helpful with guidance for the reader about comprehensive geriatric assessments and special needs of older people.

With the current pressure on cost saving and delivering a better service, every book has to comment on services and implications on primary care, and this book covers these topics very well in Chapters 16 and 17. It also provided a solution for the integrated care model, and the book concludes with chapters on policy proposals and development.

The terms ‘substance use’ and ‘substance abuse/misuse’ are used interchangeably throughout which can be quite confusing. Frequency of usage of these words could have been minimised and could have been made less repetitive. For example, Chapters 12, 20 and 21 could have been combined together and named ‘pharmacology or pharmaco-therapeutics’.

Nonetheless, this book is highly addictive and challenges your brain to its full capacity. Facts, facts and more facts is what I particularly liked about this book; this has thoroughly referenced, high-quality facts that can completely satisfy the satiety centres of your brain. This book could be a highly valuable piece in your personal library. Once you make friends with this beautiful piece of work, it will certainly enhance your armamentarium for the debates and discussions in the area of substance use in elderly people.