Media

Press Release: New Support for NHS to treat gambling addiction
From: Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, The Rt Hon Lucy Frazer KC MP, The Rt Hon Stuart Andrew MP, and Neil O'Brien MP

Henrietta Bowden-Jones, National Clinical Advisor for Gambling Harms, said: "I welcome this Levy which reflects the government’s decision to fund gambling treatment, prevention, research and education in an independent and evidence- based way allowing us to continue our work of eradicating all gambling harms from society.”

Inside the UK’s first gaming disorder clinic – podcast

Prof Henrietta Bowden-Jones tells Madeleine Finlay about how her team are learning to help those impacted, while a former patient explains how his gaming got out of hand, and how the clinic helped him to regain control.

Times Health Commission Report 2024

Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones OBE interviewed for the Times Health Commission Report 2024 by Rachel Sylvester and Tamsin Ford on all behavioural addictions at national level and what needs to change.

Times Radio, The Evening Edition with Rosie Wright
Times Radio, 7th August 2023

Founder and Director of The National Centre for Gaming Disorders, Henrietta was interviewed at length on the nature of gaming disorder, the manifestations of the illness and the impact on families as well as on the treatment available on the NHS. 

“I was not prepared for what we came across when treating gaming disorders”
The Guardian, Prof Henrietta Bowden-Jones

Most of our patients are young, and the desperation of families trying to address the disruption to their child’s life is extreme ...

Times Radio, Alexis Conran: discussion on this week’s Gambling White Paper in depth
Times Radio, 29th April 2023

In her role as National Expert Advisor, Henrietta was invited to comment on the newly released DCMS White Paper on Gambling.  Carolyn Harris MP was also interviewed at the same time.

The Times: Children addicted to video games are attacking families
Eleanor Hayward, Health Correspondent

Hundreds of children are undergoing NHS treatment after becoming addicted to video games, causing some to violently attack their own families.

Hundreds of children have received NHS treatment for an addiction to Video Gaming including some who have attacked their families.
Times Radio Breakfast

Asamah Mir talks to Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones, Director of the National Centre for Gaming Disorder

Patients given aripiprazole ‘should be told of gambling addiction risks’
The Guardian, Rachel Hall

Expert urges greater monitoring of side-effect of drug used to treat depression, psychosis and schizophrenia

BBC Radio 4 Today Programme: Warning on the impact of the World Cup on Gambling Addiction
Saturday 26th November 2022

Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones appears on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, interviewed by Martha Kearney, discussing gambling triggers during The World Cup.

Letter to the Editor, The Times: “Gambling Reform”, 25th November 2022
Signed by Lord Foster of Bath, chair, Peers for Gambling Reform; Clare Wyllie, co-founder, Tackling Gambling Stigma; Dr Heather Wardle, Glasgow University; Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, national clinical adviser on gambling harms; Dr Matthew Gaskell, NHS Northern Gambling Service; Matt Zarb-Cousin, co-founder, Clean up Gambling; Will Prochaska, Gambling with Lives; Sharon Collard, professor of personal finance, Bristol University

"Last week academics, clinicians and parliamentarians met the new organisation Tackling Gambling Stigma. They discussed the need to tackle the stigma attached to gambling harm ..."

The Times, News: Child in every secondary class has gambling issue, 11th November 2022
Andrew Ellson, Consumer Affairs Correspondent

One child in every secondary school class has a gambling problem or is at risk of developing one, the Gambling Commission has found ... Andrew Ellson, Consumer Affairs Correspondent, quotes Henrietta Bowden-Jones

The Doctor Magazine, October 2022 – Getting a Grip on Gambling

Gambling addiction is a public health menace and needs to be taken as seriously as drugs and alcohol – but regulation is weak and treatment services often lacking.

Q&A: Vice-President Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones OBE
The Royal Society of Medicine: RSM Engage

As the 2022-23 academic year signals exciting new programmes of education at the RSM, Vice-President Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones OBE talks to RSM Engage about how she is supporting the Society to meet its strategic goal of being the leading provider of continuing learning to healthcare professionals.

Cambridge University Press Bookshop: Signing copies of Breaking FREE How to Stop Gambling

A self-help workbook for people with a gambling problem and their loved ones, featuring practical exercises and worksheets.

BBC World Service, Emotional Baggage: June Angelides

Henrietta Bowden Jones talks to June Angelides about how she set up Mums In Tech on maternity leave.

BBC World Service, Emotional Baggage: Halima Begum

Henrietta Bowden-Jones talks to Civil rights campaigner Halima Begum on her formative experiences of racism.

BBC World Service, Emotional Baggage: Maya Youssef

Henrietta Bowden-Jones talks to Maya Youssef talks about her painful decision not to return to her parents' house in Damascus when the civil war in Syria began.

BBC World Service, Emotional Baggage: Dina Nayeri

Henrietta Bowden-Jones talks to novelist Dina Nayeri, author of The Ungrateful Refugee, about her experience of escaping Iran and seeking asylum.

Top NHS clinicians call for ‘addiction levy’ on gambling industry
The Guardian

Call for new independent health board to be created, funded by ‘polluter pays’ principle ...

Gambling: What happens in the brain when we get hooked – and how to regain control

Many people turned to online gambling during the pandemic. And while a large proportion of us are able to gamble recreationally, without serious negative impact, the pandemic has led to a rise in gambling addictions.

Industry funding potentially compromising gambling addiction research, say experts
Cambridge University, Research News

Prof Bowden-Jones said, “The UK is fortunate to have world leading experts in the study of addiction as well as behavioural addiction. This places us in an excellent position to further our understanding and to develop new treatments."

The Times: NHS Cuts Ties to Gambling Cash

The NHS is preparing to sever all gambling industry funding for its addiction clinics because of fears the cash could compromise their work.

(Very) Bad Habits, The Flipside Podcast
BBC

Paris speaks to an ex-drug and alcohol addict and a gaming addict both of whom slipped into unhealthy patterns of behaviour. One found professional help and a new focus, the other learnt his limits.

“Can Video Games Help Me or Harm Me”?
BBC News, World Service

Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones speaks with Adrian Hon, Professor Andrew Przybylski, Professor Pete Etchells, Dr Sabine Harrer, Alex Lathbridge and Anand Jagatia.

Gambling advertisements: the case for reform
British Medical Journal

There seems to be a strong case for rethinking the regulation of gambling advertising in the UK, and the only question now is how far the reforms should go.

Interview with my Psychiatrist, Henrietta Bowden-Jones OBE

JP Flintoff interviews Prof Henrietta Bowden-Jones about her work and her experiences treating patients.

Inside Britain’s First Gaming Addiction Clinic for Teenagers

What would you do if your child couldn’t stop gaming? Professor Bowden-Jones interviewed by Jenny Kleeman.

The Times: Inside the UK’s first video game addiction clinic for teenagers: ‘I’d play for 16 hours a day’

What do you do if your child won’t stop gaming? Jenny Kleeman meets the teenage patients getting specialist help

The Times: NHS clinic sounds alert over obsessive child videogamers
Andrew Ellson, Consumer Affairs Correspondent

Ten-year olds are being referred to the NHS's first clinic to treat addiction to video games as parents struggle to limit children's screen time.

Prof Henrietta Bowden-Jones reflects on being named Psychiatrist of the Year

“This award…will be one of the most important moments of my career.” CNWL’s Prof Henrietta Bowden-Jones reflects on being named Psychiatrist of the Year

Letter in The Lancet Psychiatry

We call on the Welsh Government to use its devolved authority to set up NHS-funded gambling disorder clinics in Wales.

Gambling Series: Henrietta Bowden-Jones of the National Gambling Clinic
Times Radio

Interview with Alexis Conrad.

‘My son was shaking, trying not to go online’: how the gambling industry got its claws into children
The Guardian, Jenny Kleeman

There are an estimated 55,000 problem gamblers aged 11-16 in England, Scotland and Wales, according to a report last year.

Gambling
Moral Maze, BBC Radio 4

What, if any, is the moral equivalence between problem gambling and other forms of addiction to recreational activities like drinking and smoking?

Is your child addicted to gambling? The shocking rise in young problem gamblers
You Magazine, The Mail on Sunday

Smartphones, online gaming and shrewd marketing have led to such a shocking rise in young problem gamblers, the NHS has opened a specialist clinic solely for teenage addicts. And the scariest thing? Many parents were oblivious to the issue, discovers Sally Williams.

The Times: Bookies bow to pressure over TV and radio adverts

For the past month, campaigners and health experts have been calling on bookmakers to suspend adverts during the lockdown to help protect the public.

Lockdown ’should apply to gambling’
Letters to the Editor, The Times

"The gambling industry must now do its bit by stopping all advertising during this crisis to protect people from financial harm."

Fair game? The secrets of football betting
BBC Radio 4, File on 4

Paul Connolly investigates the 'gamblification' of football and examines the failure of betting companies to stop millions in stolen money from being gambled on their sites.

The troubling legacy of Britain’s gambling experiment
Jonathan Ford, The Financial Times

Henrietta Bowden-Jones of the National Problem Gambling Clinic. ‘Just under half a million people are officially pathological gamblers,’ she says. ‘And how many do we treat? About 9,000 a year’

NHS Gambling Clinic for Children and Young People to Open
Happiful e-magazine

The first NHS gambling clinic for children and young people will open this year - a new network of services for addicts being rolled out as part of the NHS Long Term Plan

Gambling addiction clinic to help addicts aged 13 to 25
BBC News

The NHS is to open its first gambling clinic for children and young people.

Should excessive social media use be classed as addiction?
York St John University

Computer science lecturer Dr David Zendle has teamed up with Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, director of the National Problem Gambling Clinic, to highlight the urgent need to explore excessive social media use and its potential for harm.

Gaming giants should be forced to provide “self-exclusion” for addicts to take time out, says Royal College of Psychiatrists
The Telegraph: Charles Hymas, Home Affairs Editor & Mike Wright, Social Media Correspondent

The companies behind online games such as Fortnite should be forced to introduce “self-exclusion” software so that addicted players have to take time out to cure their condition, says the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Phones: the gambler’s friend and foe
Henrietta Bowden-Jones, Column

Turning the tables on gambling tech
Financial Times

To make treatment work, technology paradoxically needs to be befriended and used to achieve sophisticated stimulus control.

After a very difficult year, let’s celebrate the ordinary people who are Britain’s HEROES

Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones’ Memory Tape
BBC Radio 6, with Lauren Laverne

This week’s Memory Tapes comes from Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, a Psychiatrist in London

When the fun stops: ICD-11’s new gaming disorder

Dr. Henrietta Bowden-Jones and Professor Andrew Przybylski on ICD-11’s new gaming disorder

Why young people worry about internet addiction
FT Podcast

Darren Dodd discusses the WHO's decision to classify gaming disorder as a disease and why young people are worried about internet addiction with consultant psychiatrist Henrietta Bowden-Jones and Hannah Redler Hawes, curator of an upcoming exhibition on addiction and recovery at London's new Science Gallery.

Women’s Running Magazine article celebrating 100 Issues

"Lisa Jackson's 'Your Pace or Mine'? was life-changing for me in many ways" says Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones

GAMERS REHAB: The UK’s first NHS-funded centre for internet addiction and gaming will open after the WHO recognises it as a mental health condition
The Sun

A TOP London hospital is launching an NHS-funded addiction centre to help wean kids off the INTERNET.

NHS to launch first internet addiction clinic
The Guardian, Mental Health, Sarah Marsh

A London hospital is preparing to launch the first ever NHS-funded internet addiction centre for young people and adults, the Guardian can reveal.

Problem Gambling: Five minutes with … Henrietta Bowden-Jones
British Medical Journal

The Director of the National Problem Gambling Clinic calls for more NHS treatment for pathological betting

Imperial College Alumni Interview

Has the Imperial name helped you?

Facebook privacy, Problem gambling, Band merchandise
You and Yours, BBC Radio 4

Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones runs the only specialist NHS clinic in the UK to treat problem gamblers, she joins us to discuss the ways in which gambling companies encourage customers to spend more.

NHS opens clinic to help child addicts of computer games
This Morning, ITV

Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones has just founded the first NHS publicly funded gaming addiction clinic.

Keep pushing forward: Why the Medical Women’s Federation Centenary year is a special time that presents a unique opportunity for women in medicine
womanthology

An inspiring interview with president-elect Dr. Henrietta Bowden-Jones is featured in Womanthology's Women in Medicine and Health issue special.

The Times, Times2: Problem gambling: the woman who people can bet on, 26th July 2017
Carol Midgley

From students to City traders, about 300,000 people are addicted to betting in Britain. Henrietta Bowden-Jones offers hope to the most desperate cases ...

A Return to Latitude Festival 2017 for The Psychologist …

At this year’s Latitude Festival (2017), The Psychologist appeared in the Wellcome Trust Arena again, for Professor Peter Kinderman and Professor Victoria Tischler in conversation with Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones.

Interview with Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones for WOMEN’S RUNNING, March 2017: Letter to Younger Self by Lisa Jackson

It's the Older Etta here! Just thought I'd drop you a line from the future to give you some words of advice.

Gamblers’ brain activity resembles patterns in drug addicts – research shows
Irish Independent, John von Radowitz

Compulsive gamblers seek games of chance because of the same brain circuits that drive drug addiction, research has shown.

ONE STEP CLOSER TO CURE Gambling addicts have ‘WEAKER’ brains – just like alcoholics and drug addicts, scientists discover
The Sun

Experts at Imperial College London hope their discovery that gambling triggers two key areas of the brain, will lead to new treatments

The Times, Letter to the Editor: Gambling and the wider health of society, 11th October 2016
Signed by Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, Consultant psychiatrist and Royal College of Psychiatrists spokesperson on behavioural addictions

"Sir, Further to your report and Thunderer (Oct 7), pathological gambling is a medically recognised illness affecting roughly 350,000 people in this country, according to the Gambling Commission ..."

​​Inside the NHS’s only specialist gambling clinic
The Guardian, Amelia Gentleman

If people could admit ‘I am a problem gambler’ in the same way they say ‘I am an alcoholic’ they could be protected, says the founder of a London clinic working towards a cure, Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones.

Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, 2016

To celebrate the 2016 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, HBJ was invited with some other well-known book-lovers to review the year’s brilliant shortlist.

The Times: Doctors prescribe drugs to tackle Britain’s gambling epidemic, 17th February 2016
Andrew Ellson

The growing toll of problem gambling in Britain is now so serious that the NHS has started prescribing drugs for some of the worst addicts. There are more than half a million problem gamblers in Britain and calls to the country’s leading helpline rose by a third last year alone.

Private Passions, BBC Radio 3: Henrietta Bowden-Jones

Michael Berkeley's guest is neuroscientist and psychiatrist Henrietta Bowden-Jones. Her musical choices include Mozart, Dvorak and Reynaldo Hahn's Venetian songs.

The Art of Science
Hay Festival 2015

Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones examines artworks by established artists who, wittingly or not, have conveyed scientific concepts through their art.

Henrietta Bowden-Jones: Extrovert, optimistic, driven
British Medical Journal, BMJ Confidential

"What single unheralded change has made the most difference in your field in your lifetime?"

Problem Gambling; Owls and Larks; Milgram Revisited; Depression and Gut Instinct
All in the Mind, Radio 4

Henrietta Bowden-Jones runs the only NHS clinic for problem gamblers in Central London. Which treatments work best for an addiction which affects mostly men but can stay hidden?

Playful Human, Exploring the frontiers of computer games and interaction
Goldsmiths University of London

Exploring the frontiers of computer games and interaction

Stigma Talks: Chris Turner from One in Four interviewing Henrietta Bowden-Jones

Stigma Talks Interview: Henrietta talks about The National Problem Gambling Clinic

Recovery from Problem Gambling

In this 30-minute film Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, Founder and Director of the National Problem Gambling Clinic, talks to Owen Baily about his past experiences and problems with gambling.

The risk addicts
FT Magazine

What makes some City traders develop a pathological gambling addiction? The secret lives of gambler-traders

Addiction soars as online gambling hits £2bn mark
Independent

As the online business business approaches the £2bn mark and bookies seek to lure in new punters, the number of Britons at risk of becoming addicted is growing rapidly.

Speciale Sip 2012: Henrietta Bowden-jones, La Cura Della Dipendenza Da Gioco D’azzardo in UK

Durante il Congresso Nazionale della Società Italiana di Psichiatria a Milano abbiamo incontrato la Dott.ssa Henrietta Bowden-Jones che dirige a Londra la NATIONAL PROBLEM GAMBLING CLINIC unica struttura del Regno Unito che si dedichi in maniera specialistica alla cura della dipendenza patologica dal gioco e gli abbiamo chiesto di raccontare

Children who love video games have brains like gamblers
The Telegraph

Certain children's brains could be hard-wired to spend hours playing video games, according to a study which reignites the debate over whether the habit should be considered an addiction.

The Times: Male, white collar, in mid 30s – NHS gambling centre reveals typical addict, 5th October 2009
Sam Lister, Health Editor

The corrosive effect of “problem gambling” on the educated middle classes is revealed today in an audit from the country’s first NHS gambling centre.

The Times: High stakes gambling machines causing serious addiction, 7th February 2009
Sam Lister, Health Editor

High-stakes gaming machines that were introduced in their thousands after a relaxation of the gambling laws are causing serious addiction problems, evidence from the first NHS gambling clinic suggests.