Addiction Lives: Betsy Thom.

Betsy Thom trained initially in languages and then in sociology, working in Vienna for 2 years for a centre in social welfare training and research. She then worked in the Medical Sociology Unit at Bedford College with Professor Margot Jeffreys. After Margot retired, she looked for another interesting job and applied for a post at the Addiction Research Unit at the Institute of Psychiatry to do with women and alcohol. There was an existing interest in the subject in the unit, and Margaret Sheehan had been involved with the Camberwell Council on Alcohol in producing a book on Women and Alcohol. The work Betsy carried out there was part of the work of a group of women in the unit, such as Gloria Litman and Edna Oppenheimer and others, who kept this issue live. Griffith Edwards persuaded her to also include men in the research.