Griffith Edwards

expert on alcohol and drug addiction that has developed new forms of treatment

The concept of addiction to alcohol is so ingrained in the consciousness as fundamental to general scientific thought is hard to remember a time when the syndrome was recognized - and yet the original description is provisional appeared in the British Medical Journal in 1976 only. Written by Griffith Edwards, who died at age 83, and Milton Gross, the paper said Griff classic and lifelong commitment to the study of alcohol and other addictive drugs and their enormous contribution to the field.

At startup, the only approach to the treatment of alcoholics have long been confined in the hospital. Griff, always open to new ideas, challenged this approach by conducting a comparative study of inpatient and outpatient treatment of alcohol dependence. Having shown that outpatient treatment can be effective, he came to compare the impact of structured products, recommendations intentional individual outpatient conventional longer term. Then began service as a therapeutic community for heroin, a day center for drug users and helps slum drinkers, all new at the time, but not surprised today.

Convinced that there is no single therapeutic approach was appropriate for each individual supported a range of options, including motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapy, prevention relapse, psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy, according to individual needs. Sensitive as doctor, was also aware that the therapeutic relationship between doctor and patient was critical.

All innovations are based on the findings of the investigation and therefore influenced other doctors and government policy, changing the way addicts are treated. It is particularly concerned that there should be no problem of conflict of interest in connection with their investigation, and I've never had any involvement in the alcohol industry.

In 1979, he became the first professor of behavioral addiction in the United Kingdom, the establishment of a unit at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, where he met with psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists, statistics and even a historian and anthropologist. This creative mix of several different surveys covering not only alcohol, but drugs and nicotine, so the Addiction Research Unit (ARU), then located in a manufactured home in Camberwell, south London, rivaled much better funded U.S. centers.

research is firmly based on clinical services, leading Griff, and he continued to see patients regularly, while recognizing how much I learned from them in his book dealing with problems alcohol (1982 and now in its fifth edition). The ARU became the National Addiction Centre under the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, who is now an axis connecting protected Griff and students worldwide.

• Since the beginning of his career Griff advised governments and international agencies. In 1966, he designed the alcohol policy World Health, and later did the same with drugs. His many contributions to policy development in the UK are members of the Advisory Council on Drug Abuse, Member of the Board of Social and Economic Research, an adviser to alcohol problems and advise the Department of Health alcohol policy the Cabinet Office.
• Griff
• produced more than 150 scientific articles and 30 books, but was particularly proud of two books for the general public - Alcohol: ambiguous molecule (2000, published in the United States in 2002 as the alcohol : Favorite Drug global) and policy issues (2004). Also edited the magazine Barth starting when he was a student in a clinical St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and take charge of the British Journal of Addiction in 1978 from an illustrious predecessor, Max Glatt. Under his leadership, it went from four to six issues per year, and then become one month, the regional offices were established in Australia and the United States, and in 1963 was renamed dependence. Griff was editor until 2005, and continued as editor of its inception until his death.
• The younger of the two son, Griff was born in India, father and Welsh mother English. Instead of following a family tradition of veterinary medicine, Andover went from elementary school to Balliol College, Oxford, in 1947, with a scholarship in mathematics. Change in medicine, completed his clinical studies at San Bartolomé. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to be a psychiatrist and a training at the Maudsley Hospital, South London, under the influence DL Davies.

He moved to the Institute of Psychiatry as a researcher in 1962 and remained there until his retirement, he formally as professor emeritus in 1994. Subsequently, an office in the National Addiction Centre. He was appointed CBE in 1987 for services to science and social medicine.

Although his name will always be linked to addiction, his many friends will remember him also for his keen interest in all her warmth, sense of humor and hospitality around the kitchen table of the house in Greenwich he shared with his second wife of 31 years, Sue. She survives, along with two children from his first marriage, Daniel and Rosa, another girl in front of him

. James Griffith Edwards, a psychiatrist and addiction specialist, born October 3, 1928, and died September 13, 2012

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