Professor Eilish Gilvarry

I am Clinical Director of Specialties and Forensic Services at Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust, Consultant Psychiatrist in Addictions at Newcastle Addictions Service and Honorary Professor of Addiction Psychiatry at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, having been involved with UK addictions services over many years. I have been President of the Society for the Study of Addictions since 2011.

I chaired the Executive Committee of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Addictions Faculty (2004-08) and was involved with a number of working parties: member of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines on opiate detoxification (2007), NICE guidelines on clinical management of alcohol related physical complications (2010-11), NICE guidelines on management of alcohol harm and dependence (2011) and currently on the review of ‘Orange’ clinical management guidelines with the Department of Health and Public Health England (PHE). In 2010 I chaired a review of injectables treatment for drug users. I also reviewed deaths in prison (2011-13) and am currently involved in a national review of standards and working practices in prisons for drug and alcohol treatments. This will be included in “Orange” guidelines. I have a particular interest in young people and use of substances and have been involved in research and lecturing on this subject.

Chair of the Secretary of State for Transport’s advisory committee on drugs and alcohol and a member of the expert panel which produced the report “Driving Under The Influence Of Drugs” (2013), I continue to advise on this issue. I have edited a number of books, published widely in scientific journals and am currently involved in research particularly with young people and brief interventions for alcohol misusers. I am also an assessor and medical supervisor with the GMC and other regulatory authorities.