Addiction medicine is a medical specialty that deals with the treatment of
addiction. The specialty often crosses over into other areas, since various aspects of addiction fall within the fields of
public health,
psychology,
social work, mental health counseling,
psychiatry, and
internal medicine, among others. Incorporated within the specialty are the processes of
detoxification,
rehabilitation,
harm reduction, abstinence-based treatment, individual and group therapies, oversight of
halfway houses, treatment of withdrawal-related symptoms, acute intervention, and long term therapies designed to reduce likelihood of relapse . Some specialists, primarily those who also have expertise in
family medicine or internal medicine, also provide treatment for disease states commonly associated with substance use, such as
hepatitis and
HIV infection.