Book Series Guide

Author guide

Anna Lembke Books in Order

Anna Lembke is a psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. She serves as medical director of Stanford Addiction Medicine, directs the Stanford Addiction Medicine Fellowship, and is chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. Her clinical and scholarly work focuses on addiction medicine, prescription-drug misuse, pain and addiction, and behavioral addictions. She is the author of Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It’s So Hard to Stop and Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.

nonfictionaddiction medicinepsychiatrypsychologypopular science

Catalog record updated .

Anna Lembke's Newest Book

Cover of Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

nonfiction · First published 2021

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES and LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER “Brilliant . . . riveting, scary, cogent, and cleverly argued.”—Beth Macy, author of Dopesick, as heard on Fresh Air This book is about pleasure. It’s also about pain. Most important, it’s about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We’re living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting . . . The increased numbers, variety, and potency is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation. As such we’ve all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption. In Dopamine Nation, Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and author, explores the exciting new scientific discoveries that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain . . . and what to do about it. Condensing complex neuroscience into easy-to-understand metaphors, Lembke illustrates how finding contentment and connectedness means keeping dopamine in check. The lived experiences of her patients are the gripping fabric of her narrative. Their riveting stories of suffering and redemption give us all hope for managing our consumption and transforming our lives. In essence, Dopamine Nation shows that the secret to finding balance is combining the science of desire with the wisdom of recovery.

Not sure where to begin?

Start with one of these

Cover of Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

The most accessible introduction to Lembke’s work, exploring addiction, compulsive overconsumption, and the neuroscience of pleasure in contemporary life.

Cover of Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It’s So Hard to Stop

Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It’s So Hard to Stop

Read this for Lembke’s earlier, focused account of prescription-drug overuse, opioid prescribing, and the addiction crisis.

Outside the series

Bibliography by category

Novels (2)
  1. Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It’s So Hard to Stop

    nonfiction · 2016

    The disturbing connection between well-meaning physicians and the prescription drug epidemic. Three out of four people addicted to heroin probably started on a prescription opioid, according to the director of the Centers for Disease…

  2. Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

    nonfiction · 2021

    INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES and LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER “Brilliant . . . riveting, scary, cogent, and cleverly argued.”—Beth Macy, author of Dopesick, as heard on Fresh Air This book is about pleasure. It’s also about pain. Most…