MRCPsych, BA(Hons), DOccMed, MD(Imperial)

Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones is a medical doctor and neuroscience researcher working as Consultant psychiatrist  in Addictions.

She is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Medicine at Imperial College ( Division of Neurosciences) and is the current co-recipient of a Medical  Research Council grant in the area of decision-making and impulsivity.

She is the Founder and Director of the National Problem Gamblinbg Clinic based in Soho, London. The clinic is the first NHS multidisciplinary treatment centre in the UK for the treatment of problem gamblers, it has been inundated by hundreds of  referrals since its opening in 2008 and holds the only extensive national database on pathological gambling.

Henrietta also runs the UK Problem Gambling Research Consortium, a group of 12 researchers from Imperial, Cambridge, Oxford and UCL collaborating on different research projects exploring the neurobiology of pathological gambling.

Henrietta  belongs to the ICCAM (Imperial, Cambridge, Manchester) neuroscience research group funded by the Medical Resarch Council to develop effective treatment for all addictions.

Prior to founding the National Problem Gambling Clinic Henrietta ran for many years the inpatient NHS detoxification services for alcohol and drugs in central London (CNWL NHS Foundation Trust) as well as leading the Soho Rapid Access Clinic, treating the homeless drug addicts of central London.

Much of her time is spent teaching  medical postgraduate students, psychologists, mental health professionals, magistrates, psychiatrists and others about different aspects of problem gambling, as well as topics such as the neurobiology of addiction, decision-making, adolescent brains and impulsivity . She is regularly invited to lecture abroad and speak at conferences.

She is the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ spokesperson on Problem Gambling as well as being a current elected member of the Executive Committee Addictions Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

She held the post of elected Finance Officer for the Addictions Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists for the period 2006-2010.

Henrietta is a member of the Government’s Responsible Gambling Strategy Board since 2009 advising on prevention, research, treatment and education and a member of the Board’s Prevention Panel.

Having completed her medical degree and her psychiatric training she spent some years  with Imperial College researching the effects of alcohol on the brain. She was awarded an MD for her work, her  doctorate thesis is on Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Dysfunction in Alcohol dependency. Decision-making is one of her areas of interest in neuroscience.

One of her roles on the Royal college executive committee is to be the link person to the Faculty of occupational Medicine. She has collaborated with the Faculty on guidelines for managing substance misuse in the workplace and has been a member of a separate working group advising occupational physicians  on alcohol misuse at work. She is advisor to London Underground on alcohol and drugs misuse and works closely with their Alcohol and Drug assessment unit in London, carrying out assessments on their staff.

In her charity work she is a Trustee of Sporting Chance Clinic, a high profile addiction charity which helps top sportsmen and women in the UK in their fight against drugs, alcohol and gambling.

 November 13th 2010 : Henrietta was nominated in The Times Best Doctors in Britain list.

Grant Collaborations:

2011-2016       MRC project grant ' Neurotransmitters in opiate and alcohol addiction (NOAA). Co-investigators: A Lingford-Hughes, H Bowden-Jones, L.Clark, PI D.Nutt.  Grant value £ 1,600,000.

2011-2014       MRC project grant ‘Neural basis of gambling cognitions: relevance for vulnerability and treatment of gambling addiction’. Grant value: £626,758. Co-investigators: H Bowden-Jones, A Lingford-Hughes, M Aitken, R Rogers. PI, L.Clark.

2009-2011       MRC project grant ‘Predicting relapse in treatment-seeking pathological gamblers using impulsivity and compulsivity assays’. Grant value £214,402. Co-investigators: H Bowden-Jones, U Muller. PI,L.Clark.

2010-2012 Collaboration with Prof Robert Rogers, Oxford University: Prevalence of Problem gambling pathology, mental health issues and substance misuse among Football Association and Premiere League footballers across the UK.  Funding from PFA.

2010-2011 Collaboration with Dr Tim Weaver and Dr Julie Trebilcock Imperial College : Treatment Outcomes at the National Problem Gambling Clinic: The first two years. Funding from Imperial College.

Research and Publications:

A patient's Journey: Gambling addiction

British Medical Journal (BMJ)  Dec 2011; 343 do7789

 http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/bmj.d7789

Author(s): patient, Bowden-Jones H, George S.

Impulsivity and Cognitive Distortions in pathological gamblers attending the UK National Problem Gambling Clinic: A preliminary report.

Psychological Medicine Dec 2011 41 pp 2625-2635

Authors(s): Michalczuc R, Bowden-Jones H, Verdejo-Garcia A, Clark L.

 Pathological gambling in Parkinson's disease-a review of the literature

Movement Disorders, September 2011, vol./is. 26/11(1976-1984), 0885-3185;1531-8257 (September 2011)

 Author(s): Djamshidian A., Cardoso F., Grosset D., Bowden-Jones H., Lees A.J.

 Abstract: The prevalence of pathological gambling is 3.4% to 6% in treated Parkinson's disease, which is higher than the background population rate. In this review we discuss current evidence to indicate that dopamine agonists are much more likely to trigger this behavior than either L-dopa or selective monoamine oxidase B inhibitor monotherapy. New insights from recent behavioral and functional imaging studies and possible treatment approaches are also covered. A PubMed literature search using the terms "gambling" and "Parkinson's disease," "impulse control disorder," "impulsive compulsive behaviour," "dopamine agonist," of individual dopamine agonists, and of ongoing drug trials, using, was carried out for the period up to January 2011. 2011 Movement Disorder Society.

Pathological gambling and the treatment of psychosis with aripiprazole: Case reports

  British Journal of Psychiatry, August 2011, vol./is. 199/2(158-159), 0007-1250;1472-1465 (August 2011)

Author(s): Smith N., Kitchenham N., Bowden-Jones H.

 Abstract: This paper details three case reports that suggest that pathological gambling activity may have been adversely modified following treatment for psychosis with the antipsychotic aripiprazole. These reports are discussed in the context of previous observations of the potential impact of aripiprazole on impulse control and the implications such observations could have for clinical practice and future research.

Pathological gambling: A neurobiological and clinical update

 British Journal of Psychiatry, August 2011, vol./is. 199/2(87-89), 0007-1250;1472-1465 (August 2011)

Author(s): Bowden-Jones H., Clark L.

 Abstract: A proposed merging of pathological gambling with the drug addictions in the forthcoming DSM-5 prompts an overview of the neurobiological data showing similarities between these conditions, as well as an update on national trends in gambling behaviour and current treatment provision.

'You never told me I would turn into a gambler': a first person account of a dopamine agonist- induced gambling addiction in a patient with restless legs syndrome.

BMJ Case Reports 2011: doi;10.1136/bcr

Author(s): H.Bowden-Jones, S. George.

Gambling Addiction in Women

Women's Health,Vol 6, N2,2011

Author(s) S.George, H.Ekhtiari, H.Bowden-Jones

Once upon a time…’ . Article on the development of the National Problem Gambling Clinic.

Addiction Today: Jan 2010

Author: H.Bowden-Jones

Win-win treatment. Interview by Lynne Wallis

 Nursing standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain) : 1987), February 2009, vol./is. 23/23(22-23), 0029-6570 (2009 Feb 11-17)

 Author(s): Bowden-Jones H., Frayne C.

 Abstract: Addiction to gambling tends to be a hidden problem but now the UK's first NHS-funded treatment unit is attempting to tackle it.

2008 Cambridge Textbook of Effective Treatments in Psychiatry .

 H.Bowden-Jones:Co-author of  Cannabis chapter.

Editor Prof Peter Tyrer and K. Silk.

Harm Reduction Canadian Style

Scanbites Summer 2006: vol 3 issue 2.

Author: H.Bowden-Jones

 Neurobehavioural characteristics and relapse in addiction [11]

  British Journal of Psychiatry, May 2006, vol./is. 188/MAY(494), 0007-1250 (May 2006)

 Author(s): Bowden-Jones H., McPhillips M., Joyce E.M.

Risk-taking on tests sensitive to ventromedial prefrontal cortex dysfunction predicts early relapse in alcohol dependency: A pilot study

 Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 2005, vol./is. 17/3(417-420), 0895-0172 (2005)

 Author(s): Bowden-Jones H., McPhillips M., Rogers R., Hutton S., Joyce E.

Abstract: Twenty one patients in a residential rehabilitation program fulfilling International Classification of Diseases-10 (ICD) criteria for alcohol dependence syndrome were recruited. On neuropsychological tests, alcohol dependent patients relapsed early if they made choices governed by immediate gain irrespective of later outcome, which is consistent with dysfunctional ventromedial-prefrontal cortex mediating the inability to resist the impulse to drink despite ultimately deleterious effects. The authors suggest that the use of neuropsychological tasks of decision making may have several advantages over more conventional strategies for studying alcoholism. Copyright 2005 American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.

Abstracts

2011 Abstract for National Research Council on Gambling conference,Las Vegas:

 Facets of impulsivity predict cognitive distortions in pathological gambling: preliminary data from the UK National Problem Gambling Clinic. Bowden-Jones H, Michalczuk R, Verdejo-Garcia A, Clark L.

2003 Abstract for Research Society on Alcohol, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Risk-taking on tests sensitive to ventromedial prefrontal cortex dysfunction predicts early relapse in alcohol dependency: A pilot study Bowden-Jones H, McPhillips M, Rogers R, Hutton S, Joyce E.

Awards and Bursaries

2006 Specialist Clinical Addiction Network Travel Award - Visited heroin users injectable services in Vancouver, Canada and published an article ' Harm reduction Canadian Style' .(see above) 

2003 Imperial College Hallinan Young Researcher  Award. Presented research abstract at Research Society on Alcohol annual meeting, Florida.

2002 Research fellowship Imperial: 6 months funding to study decision-making in substance misuse. Published results in Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience (see above)