Dr Rahul Rao is a Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, working at North Southwark Community Mental Health Team for older people, Rotherhithe.

Dr Rao's research interests include the assessment and treatment of and service provision for alcohol misuse in older people. He has undertaken an MSc in the Clinical and Public Health Aspects of Addiction and has been awarded a Clinical Governance Award by his NHS Trust, for his work on alcohol misuse in older people.

Email: tony.rao@slam.nhs.uk

Declaration of interest: none

Professor Ilana Crome is Professor of Addiction Psychiatry and Academic Director of Psychiatry, Keele University School of Medicine, Staffordshire. She is the Lead Clinician for the Lock, Young People’s Substance Misuse Service, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust, Stoke on Trent.

Professor Crome has worked in the substance misuse field since the early 1980s. She has contributed to the national research, education and policy agenda with a particular focus on the evolution of substance problems over the lifespan. She sits on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and the Executive Council of the Society for the Study of Addiction, is International Editor of the American Journal on Addictions and Chair of a newly established Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Working Group on Older Substance Misusers.

Email: i.crome@keele.ac.uk

Declaration of interests: None