The past thirty years have witnessed a revolution in the science of addiction, yet we still rely on outdated methods of treatment. Expensive new programs for managing addiction are also flourishing, but since they are not based in science, they offer little benefit to people who cannot afford to lose money or faith in their recovery.

Clarifying the cutting-edge science of addiction for both practitioners and general readers, The Thirteenth Step pairs stories of real patients with explanations of key concepts relating to their illness. A police chief who disappears on the job illustrates the process through which a drug can trigger the brain circuits mediating relapse. One person's effort to find a burrito shack in a foreign city illuminates the reward prediction error signaled by the brain chemical dopamine. With these examples and more, this volume paints a vivid, readable portrait of drug seeking, escalation, and other aspects of addiction and suggests science-based treatments that promise to improve troubling relapse rates. Merging science and human experience, The Thirteenth Step offers compassionate, valuable answers to anyone who hopes for a better handle on a confounding disease.

"Markus Heilig sums up what he has learned during his twenty years as a physician and researcher in the treatment of alcohol and other addictive disorders.... An informative and compassionate chronicle." - Kirkus Reviews

"Recommended for anyone who suffers from addiction or who knows someone who does; undergraduate and graduate students, scholars, and researchers studying medicine, particularly addiction and neurology, and psychology; and anyone who has an interest in learning more about the subject." - Library Journal

"What makes this book especially compelling is the author's ability to smoothly transition between dealing with addictions at the human clinical level and at the more abstract level of scientific research. Heilig admirably tries to extract the most meaningful takeaway points from sometimes-dense scientific findings.... Highly recommended." - Choice

"Markus Heilig has succeeded in making the airy dismissals of biological evidence-based approaches to addiction, such as those he heard in medical school, no longer tenable." - Times Literary Supplement

"[The Thirteenth Step] offers a brilliant and, perhaps more important, highly legible review of current addiction science.... Heilig's synthesis invites us all to critically consider the addiction concept along with its implications for people, policy, and the practice of medicine." - H-Sci-Med-Tech