Addictions

As well as the addiction itself, the effects of addictive behaviour are apparent across all healthcare services making addictions a vital area for research, education and clinical services.                                                                           

Addictions CAGThe Addictions Clinical Academic Group (CAG) at King’s Health Partners covers illicit drugs, alcohol and tobacco addiction. We are one of the largest providers of NHS addictions services in the UK.

Read the latest news from our Addictions CAG

King's Health Partners brings together world-class clinical services, leading research activity and education to provide the best possible healthcare for people with addictions in south London and beyond. In 2017, we published the Addictions CAG Outcomes book, demonstrating our vision for excellence in clinical care, research, and education and training. 

Our work covers various aspects of addictive behaviour including work in alcohol addiction, illicit drug addiction, and work in smoking cessation.

Education

We provide education and training at undergraduate and postgraduate level through the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at our partner university King’s College London. Within Addictions, we have an MSc in Addictions, and a distance-learning MSc Master of Science in International Addiction Studies

As well as our degree programmes, we are committed to training the whole workforce and provide courses in areas such as recovery mapping and short courses in alcohol intervention.

Key education achievements include:

  • The Understanding Drugs and Addiction Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) was delivered on the FutureLearn Platform and 11,620 enrolled in the course. More than 97% of learners rated the course as very good/excellent.

Research

The Addictions Department at King’s College London forms the main hub of research for the CAG. It is one of the most productive research groups in Europe and focuses on research in alcohol addiction, substance misuse and tobacco addiction.

Innovations and achievements

Our aim is to explore and understand addictive behaviours and identify potential behaviour levers at a preventative, treatment and rehabilitation level. We are also focussed on reducing the health harms of addictions so that people are able to improve their quality of life.
Prof Sir John Strang, Head of Addictions Department, King's College London.

Addictions CAG Leaders

Prof John Strang, Head of Addictions Department, King's College London.

Dr Emily Finch, Consultant Addiction Psychiatrist, Clinical Director, Southwark, Central Acute and Addictions Directorate, South London and Maudsley NHS FT.