Griffith Edwards (known as ‘Griff’) was director of the Addiction Research Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, London, and an honorary consultant psychiatrist at the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals, London. A driving force in the international development of the study of addiction, Griff’s work greatly improved the understanding of, and care for, people addicted to alcohol and drugs. He edited the journal Addiction for over 25 years, established the charity Action on Addiction, and advised the government and WHO on alcohol issues. 

James Griffith Edwards was born on 3 October 1928 in India to James Thomas Griffith Edwards, a veterinary bacteriologist and the third generation in a family of vets – his grandfather John MacFadyean also qualified in medicine. Brought back to England in 1929, Griff attended Andover Grammar School before reading medicine at Balliol College, Oxford. 

His early academic roles included research worker at the Institute of Psychiatry (1962-66), followed by lecturer at the Institute (1966-7), senior lecturer (1967-73), reader in drug dependence and then director of the Addiction Research Unit there from 1970. 

In 1976 he and colleague Milton Gross established the concept of alcohol dependence in a ground-breaking paper in the BMJ - ‘Alcohol dependence: provisional description of a clinical syndrome’. This led to the condition being adopted into the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9 onwards), in turn leading to a sea-change in both research on, and the treatment of, people with alcohol disorders, and a wider understanding of the dangers of alcohol use in the population. 

Over his career, Griff wrote nearly 200 scientific papers and over 40 books. As editor of Addiction, his successor Professor Robert West said of him: ‘He was responsible for transforming a modest national journal into the leading international journal by providing it with a vision, an identity, and a mission.’¹ 

Griff reached from the academic and clinical realms into the public, becoming involved in the creation of public policy on alcohol as a member of government advisory committees and boards. He supported many charitable and community initiatives to improve the care of people with alcohol and drug issues. He established the charity Action on Addiction, which funded many addiction treatment and recovery projects and the Addiction Sciences Building at the Institute of Psychiatry. He made himself available to the media to improve the understanding of alcohol dependence, and denounce the alcohol industry’s tactics in trying to undermine researchers and research projects. 

The many tributes written by friends and colleagues on his death attest to Griff’s wit, warmth, generosity and hospitality, often entertaining international visitors at his home in Greenwich with his wife Sue (née Stables), whom he married in 1981. Griff died on 13 September 2012, survived by Sue, and two children Daniel and Rose from his previous marriage in 1969 to Evelyn (née Morrison). 

RCP Editor 

Sources/further reading 

1https://www.bmj.com/bmj/section-pdf/187674?path=/bmj/345/7881/Obituaries.full.pdf (Accessed 7 February 2023) 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/sep/25/griffith-edwards (Accessed 7 February 2023) 

https://academic.oup.com/alcalc/article/48/1/1/176096 (Accessed 7 February 2023) 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9694175/Professor-Griffith-Edwards.html (Accessed 7 February 2023)