Message from the President

Message from the President, 

Society for Addiction Psychology 

L.N. Suman 

President, Society for Addiction Psychology 

Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology NIMHANS, Bengaluru 

Email: lnsuman@outlook.com 

Dear Friends 

It is a great privilege and honour to be the First Hon. President of the Society for Addiction Psychology (SAP). The Society was formed after a group of like-minded clinical psychologists got together to form a professional body dedicated to building and sharing knowledge related to psychosocial aspects of psychoactive substance use and behavioural addictions. The concerted efforts of the group culminated in the formation of the society on 22 nd July 2022. 

It is very apt that the first conference is being held in NDDTC as the idea of the society and its objectives had its genesis here. The faculty and staff at NDDTC have worked tirelessly to get the society registered and initiate its activities at the earliest. The society aims to build a network of professionals and stakeholders who have a shared interest in addressing issues arising from substance misuse and behavioural addictions. The conference is an important milestone which will provide a forum for practitioners, researchers, academicians and policy makers to deliberate on current advances in the field. 

Although substance misuse has been recognized as a public health problem, very few professionals take an active interest in the field. There is a pressing need to create trained manpower who will provide competent and effective interventions to prevent substance misuse, provide early intervention and handle complex clinical presentations. The services of these ‘addiction professionals’ will be valuable in diverse settings such as general hospitals, deaddiction centres, mental health institutes, educational and occupational settings, prisons, juvenile homes, police forces and defence services. The Society for Addiction Psychology aims to contribute to training by way of workshops and academic meetings. 

This is only the beginning and there is a long way to go to accomplish the objectives of the society. I thank my fellow clinical psychologists for nominating me as the Hon. President and for having faith in my abilities to guide the society. With the cooperation of all of you, I am sure the society will have a strong foundation and will flourish in the right direction. 

I also appreciate all the authors for their insightful contributions to the Society’s journal. This is the perfect starting point in the direction of achieving the Journal’s high standards in scientific publications. I congratulate all the members of the editorial board for the hard work that has gone into bringing out the first and second issues of the journal. 

Journal of Society for Addiction Psychology | Volume 1 | Issue 1 | March 2024 | Page 5