Griffith Edwards


James Griffith Edwards CBE was a British psychiatrist.
Edwards was born on 3 October 1928 in India and received his M.D. from Balliol College, Oxford. His research focused on the study and treatment of alcohol and other drug dependence and related aspects of addictions. He was a major international figure influencing the development of the discipline of alcohol and drug studies, and promoted rigorous scientific and clinical standards in approaching the broader aspects of these problems.
He was director of the Medical Research Council-funded Addiction Research Unit from 1968 until his retirement from King's College London. He also established the UK National Addiction Centre in London and was its first Chair and Director. His 25 years of service as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Addiction transformed it from a small British journal to the most widely-read and cited substance use-related journal in the world. Among the many prizes he received in his career was the E.M. Jellinek Memorial Award in 1979 for his research on alcohol use disorders, and, being made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1987 for his services to social science and medicine.
Edwards wrote extensively on policy aspects of alcohol and other drug problems and promoted a balanced public health population-based approached to the tackling of alcohol and other drug problems. He wrote the original description of alcohol dependence and the terminology of dependence has become the global term adopted in international disease classification systems including the DSM and ICD classifications.
Edwards published a wide range of original scientific studies on alcohol and other drugs and also wrote several popular science books including Alcohol, The Worlds Favourite Drug, Matters of Substance: Drugs, and Why Everyone is a User. He also sole-authored in 1982 the first edition of the influential book The Treatment of Drinking Problems and contributed as an author, co-author, and ultimately advisor to its subsequent editions over the ensuing decades. After his death, the authors of the sixth edition, Keith Humphreys and , renamed the book in his honour as .

Research and community development projects

Professor Edwards combined a career of developing research and knowledge on aspects of alcohol and drug problems with the promotion of community based actions. He supported the development of a broad structured response to alcohol and other drug problems, including appropriate and high quality medical and psychiatric services for such problems. Edwards conducted research and supported the development of new approaches to those who are homeless and also people in prison with alcohol problems. He was instrumental in supporting the establishment of the first Therapeutic Community for treatment of Drug Dependence, Phoenix House. In addition, he supported the development of community drug agencies in the late 1960s and was involved in the early work piloting community-based services for alcohol problems.
Along with Lady Ann Parkinson, he supported the founding of a charity originally called Action on Addiction in 1989.. Action on Addiction works to support treatment and aftercare, as well as the development of research and service innovation in Addictions. Through his interest in developing country issues and links with the World Health Organisation he strongly supported and encouraged projects to assist research and service development in resource poor settings.
Professor Edwards' academic work involved research in tobacco, alcohol and other drugs and has supported a training, research, treatment and policy approach that combines all substances that are addictive into a coherent theoretical framework. He has promoted an approach that combines the basic sciences of addiction, to the more applied and social sciences and sought to promote an evidenced based policy approach that is fully scientifically informed.
Edwards participated in multiple, international efforts to integrate the lessons of addiction research for policymakers, including the books ' and ', both of which supported evidence-informed, humane, and balanced public policy towards addictive legal and illegal substances.