Professor Anne R Lingford-Hughes PhD BMBCH MRCPsych

Professor Anne Lingford-Hughes has been Professor of Addiction Biology at Imperial College since 2009. She is also a Consultant Psychiatrist with a particular interest in pharmacological treatments of alcohol problems and comorbidity at Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust. Her research has focused on using neuroimaging and neuropharmacological challenges to characterize the neurobiology of addiction. In particular she has used positron emission tomography (PET) to characterize the dopamine, opioid and GABA-benzodiazepine receptor systems in alcoholism and opiate dependence (key papers are below).  She is currently working on MRC funded studies, one with Cambridge and Manchester, on pharmacology of different vulnerabilities to relapse in alcohol, heroin and cocaine addiction.

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 vice-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.

Key publications.

Lingford-Hughes A, Hume SP, Feeney A, Hirani E,  Osman S, Cunningham VJ, Pike VW, Brooks DJ, & Nutt DJ. (2002). Imaging the GABA-benzodiazepine receptor subtype containing the a5-subunit in vivo with PET. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 22(7):878-89.

Lingford-Hughes AR, Wilson SJ, Cunningham VJ, Feeney A, Stevenson B, Brooks DJ, Nutt DJ. (2005). GABA-benzodiazepine receptor function in alcohol dependence: a combined 11C-flumazenil PET and pharmacodynamic study. Psychopharmacology 180: 595-606.

Williams TM, Daglish MRC Lingford-Hughes AR, Taylor LG, Hammers A, Brooks DJ, Grasby PG, Myles JS, & Nutt DJ. (2007) Increased availability of opioid receptors in early abstinence from opioid dependence: a [11C]diprenorphine PET study. Br J Psychiatry. 191(1) 63-69.

Nutt DJ, Besson M, Wilson SJ, Dawson GR, Lingford-Hughes AR. (2007) Selective blockade of alcohol’s amnestic actions by an a5 subtype-benzodiazepine receptor inverse agonist.  Neuropharmacology. 53(7):810-20.

Reid AG, Daglish MRC, Kempton M, Williams TM, Watson B, Nutt DJ, Lingford-Hughes A. (2008) Reduced Grey Matter Volume in Opiate Dependence May Be Explained By Degree of Alcohol Use: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study. J of Psychopharmacology. 22(1):7-10.

DaglishMRC, WilliamsT, Wilson, SJ, TaylorLG, Brooks DJ, Myles JS, GrasbyPG, Lingford-Hughes AR & NuttDJ. (2008) No measurable dopamine response to heroin in the brains of human addicts.  Br J Psychiatry 193(1):65-72.

Williams TM, Davies SJ, Taylor LG, Daglish MR, Hammers A, Brooks DJ, Nutt DJ, Lingford-Hughes A. (2009) Brain opioid receptor binding in early abstinence from alcohol dependence and relationship to craving: An [(11)C]diprenorphine PET study. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol.19(10):740-748.

Lingford-Hughes AR, Reid AG, Myers J, Feeney A, Hammers A, Taylor LG, Rosso L, Turkheimer F, Brooks DJ, Grasby P, Nutt DJ. (2012) A [¹¹C]Ro15 4513 PET study suggests that alcohol dependence in man is associated with reduced a5 benzodiazepine receptors in limbic regions.  Journal of Psychopharmacology. J Psychopharmacol. 26(2):273-81.

Stokes PRA, Egerton A, Watson B, Reid A, Lappin J, Nutt D & Lingford-Hughes A. (2011). History of cannabis use is not associated with alterations in striatal dopamine D2/D3 receptor availability. J of Psychopharmacology. Epub

Myers JFM, Rosso L, Watson BJ, Wilson SJ, Kalk NJ, Clementi N, Brooks DJ, Nutt DJ, Turkheimer FE, Lingford-Hughes AR. (2012) Characterization of the contribution of the GABA-benzodiazepine α1 receptor subtype to [11C]Ro15-4513 PET images. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. EPub