The origin, development and current status of the health profession of an addictologist in the Czech Republic in the broader context of the development of the addictology field

In the 1990s, new addiction services began to emerge that had a shortage of appropriately qualified and trained practitioners. This impulse led to the establishment of the health profession of an ADDICTOLOGIST in the Czech Republic. In the course of time, this new profession was developed and gave rise to an original and unique concept of the study program.

The aim was to describe the details of the origin, development, and current status of the study programme in addictology in the context of the addictive behaviour-related developments in the Czech Republic. Another objective is to point out the changing profile of similarly-oriented study programmes and the emerging wave of interest in them internationally, including the development of the first international model curricula for this type of study at universities. While the development of the original concept of the discipline was influenced by the requirements of the service providers of the time, it became apparent before long that the dynamics of the development of the field had gone beyond its original scope and given rise to a brand-new concept of a study programme referred to as the “Prague Model of Addiction".