Griffith Edwards

James Griffith Edwards CBE (3 October 1928 – 13 September 2012) 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 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. He was Editor-in-Chief of the journal ''Addiction'' for twenty-five years. In 1971 he delivered the Edwin Stevens Lecture. Awards he received include 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 (CBE) in 1987 for his services to social science and medicine, among others.

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 wrote on alcohol and other drugs for both professionals and academics, and for a general audience. His popular science books include ''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 book ''The Treatment of Drinking Problems'' and contributed as an author, co-author, and advisor to its subsequent editions. After his death, the five other authors of the sixth edition renamed the book in his honour as ''Edwards' Treatment of Drinking Problems''. Provided by Wikipedia