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