Griffith Edwards

Who was Griffith Edwards?

Griffith Edwards CBE was born 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. He established the UK National Addiction Centre in London and was its first Chair and Director. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Addiction and has received many awards for his work.

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.