Isabella Frankau

Dr Isabella McDougall Robertson (died May 1967), also known as Lady Frankau, was a British psychiatrist who specialised in alcohol and drug addiction.

For other people with the same surname, see Frankau (surname).

A London-based "society doctor",[1] her readiness to prescribe controlled drugs is credited with single-handedly addicting many British people to heroin.[2] From evidence she gave to the Brain Committee, she said the total between 1958 and 1964 was just over 500.[3]

After the death of her first husband, Gordon Cunningham, she married the eminent surgeon Claude Frankau (1883–1967) in 1935.[4][5] When her husband was knighted in the 1945 New Years Honours,[6] Isabella Frankau became known as "Lady Frankau" in accordance with accepted usage.[7]

As Dr Isabella Robertson, she was one of the first researchers at the Maudsley Hospital, initially working with Frederick Mott and Frederick Golla on the physical basis of psychoses.[8][9][10][11] During the Second World War, she worked at Cambridge University's Psychological Laboratory on the use of dietary supplements to improve the physical performance of servicemen.[12] In the early 1950s she researched the use of subconvulsive electroshock therapy treatment for alcoholism.[13][14]

References
  1. Pop & Jazz: As though he had wings Independent
  2. Drugs policy: The 'British system' BBC News
  3. Heroin addiction care and control: the British System HB Speare 2002, page 148.
  4. Anonymous (1967-07-08). "Obituary Notices". British Medical Journal. 3 (5557): 116–117. doi:10.1136/bmj.3.5557.116. PMC 1842382.
  5. "FRANKAU, Sir Claude (Howard Stanley)". Who Was Who. A & C Black. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
  6. "Supplement, January 1, 1945". The London Gazette. No. 36866. December 29, 1944. p. 2.
  7. "Forms of Address – Wife of a Knight". Debrett's. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
  8. Frederick W. Mott and Isabella McDougall Robertson (July 1923). "Histological Examination of the Pituitary Gland in 110 Asylum and Hospital Cases". BJPsych. 69 (286).
  9. Edward Mapother (1926-11-13). "British Medical Association Proceedings of Sections at the Annual Meeting, Nottingham, 1926". British Medical Journal. 2 (3436): 872–885. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.3436.872. PMC 2523649.
  10. Michael Shepherd (1993). "Interview with Sir Aubrey Lewis" (PDF). Psychiatric Bulletin. 17 (12): 743. doi:10.1192/pb.17.12.738. In the transcription Sir Aubrey apparently refers to "the future Lady Frankau" as "Camilla Robertson" rather than "Isabella"
  11. Edgar Jones and Shahina Rahman (July 2009). "The Maudsley Hospital and the Rockefeller Foundation: The Impact of Philanthropy on Research and Training". J Hist Med Allied Sci. 64 (3): 273–299. doi:10.1093/jhmas/jrn065. PMC 2723762. PMID 18996947.
  12. I. M. Frankau (November 13, 1943). "Acceleration of Muscular Effort by Nicotinamide". British Medical Journal. 2 (4323): 601–603. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.4323.601. PMC 2285375. PMID 20785121.
  13. E. Lincoln Williams (December 1954). "The Management of the Chronic Alcoholic". Postgrad Med J. 30 (350): 626–30. doi:10.1136/pgmj.30.350.626. PMC 2501319. PMID 13215184.
  14. "Medical News". British Medical Journal. 1 (4854): 165–166. January 16, 1954. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.4854.165. PMC 2084421.
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