Summary
Professor Anne Lingford-Hughes is Head, Centre for 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/.
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 currently 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.
Publications
Journals
Roussakis A, Gennaro M, Gordon MF, et al., 2023, A PET-CT study on neuroinflammation in Huntington’s patients participating in a randomised trial with laquinimod, Brain Communications, ISSN:2632-1297
MacKillop J, Agabio R, Ewing SWFW, et al., 2022, Hazardous drinking and alcohol use disorders, Nature Reviews Disease Primers, Vol:8, ISSN:2056-676X
Padmanathan P, Hall K, Moran P, et al., 2022, Corrigendum to "Prevention of suicide and reduction of self-harm among people with substance use disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials " [Comprehensive Psychiatry, volume 96 (2020)], Comprehensive Psychiatry, Vol:119, ISSN:0010-440X
Vamvakopoulou IA, Fonville L, Hayes A, et al., 2022, Selective D3 receptor antagonism modulates neural response during negative emotional processing in substance dependence, Frontiers in Psychiatry, Vol:13, ISSN:1664-0640, Pages:1-20
Paterson L, Lingford-Hughes A, Cro S, et al., 2022, FORWARDS-1; An adaptive, single-blind, placebo-controlled ascending dose study of acute baclofen on safety parameters in opioid dependence during methadone-maintenance treatment; a pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic study, Trials, Vol:23, ISSN:1745-6215