ProfessorAnne Lingford-Hughes, PhD BMBCH FRCPsych

Professor Anne Lingford-Hughes is Head, Division of Psychiatry and Professor of Addiction Biology at Imperial College London. She is also a Consultant Psychiatrist with a particular interest in pharmacological treatments of alcohol and opiate addictions at Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust. Her research has focused on using neuroimaging and neuropharmacological challenges to characterize the neurobiology of addiction. She has used positron emission tomography (PET) and fMRI to characterize the dopamine (DRD2, DRD3), opioid (mu), GABA-benzodiazepine (a5 subtype), GABA-B, NK1 receptor systems in a range of substance addictions including alcoholism, cocaine and opiate dependence in the ICCAM protocol as well disordered gambling. More recently she has been exploring how to facilitate successful opiate detoxification in 2 projects: A:using neuroimaging of brain processes (eg mediating reward, cue reactivity) to assess the potential of NK1 antagonism to attenuate any dysregulation & B: a clinical trial to assess the potential of baclofen (GABA-B agonist) in reducing methadone doses during detox. The aim of her research programme is to better understand neurobiology underpinning these disorders to improve treatment.

Professor Anne Lingford-Hughes leads the MRC Addiction Research Clinical Training Programme (MARC) with Prof Colin Drummond, IOPPN, KCL and Prof Matt Hickman, University of Bristol. For events and opportunities associated with MARC see https://www.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/study/mrc-addiction-research-clinical-training/.

On May 26th 2023, Professor Anne Lingford-Hughes was named as the UK Government’s new Addiction Mission Chair. This role is part of the Chancellor’s ‘Life Science for Growth’ package.

Prof Lingford-Hughes is past Hon. General Secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology. She co-developed and wrote their guidelines about the pharmacological management of substance misuse and addiction and comorbidity with psychiatric disorders. She has also contributed to NICE guidance regarding pharmacotherapy of opiate detoxification and alcohol misuse and dependence.

She is was Professional Liaison Officer, British Neuroscience Association, and immediate past Chair of the Academic Faculty of RCPsych.

She graduated in medicine from Oxford University, completed her PhD at Cambridge University, and trained in psychiatry at The Bethlem and Maudsley Hospitals and Institute of Psychiatry.