Professor Hilary Little BSc MSc PhD

Hilary Little is a preclinical pharmacologist, currently a visiting Professor of Addiction Science at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, London. She graduated from Manchester University, then worked at Oxford, Bristol, and Durham Universities and St George's Medical School. Her early research covered psychostimulant drugs and mechanisms of general anaesthesia. This was followed by studies on anxiolytic drugs, which led to the formulation of a new mechanism of action, the two way benzodiazepine receptor theory. She then worked on alcohol dependence, in particular the role of stress hormones in alcoholism and the development of pharmacological treatments for alcohol dependence, in collaboration with the Universities of Bern and Lexington. Following on from this research, she and Professor C. Drummond were Principal Investigators on a randomised clinical trial of a stress hormone agent to treat relapse drinking and cognitive defects in alcoholics.