The Maudsley Psychedelic Society Inaugural Lecture (HD overlay)
'Why It’s Time to Put Psychedelics Back into Psychiatry'
The Maudsley Psychedelic Society are delighted to launch their lecture series with an inaugural lecture from Professor David Nutt.
Professor David J Nutt
Edmund J Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology, Imperial College London
6pm, Wednesday 16th December,
The Wolfson Lecture Theatre, The Insititute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience,
Kings College London, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF
The extensive use of naturally occurring psychedelic compounds such as psilocybe ‘magic’ mushrooms (psilocybin), peyote cactus (mescaline) and ayahuasca (dimethyltryptamine) by geographically independent populations over millennia suggests they have a uniquely interesting interaction with human conscious experience and culture. This area has remained largely unexplored by scientific enquiry since the 1971 UN Convention on Drugs classified psychedelics as having no medically recognised use and the maximum potential for harm, despite evidence that they were useful in the treatment of non-psychotic mental health problems and minimal evidence of adverse events when used in medical settings.
Nearly half a century later, unipolar depressive disorder is set to become the leading cause of years lost to disability world-wide, with alcohol/drug addiction and anxiety disorders not far behind. The pharmacological pipeline in psychiatry is largely dry and whilst psychological therapies are used more than hitherto, many patients remain stuck in chronically maladaptive patterns of thinking, feeling and behaviour.
Within this context, attention has returned to psychedelics as pharmacological catalysts of mentally salutary change in psychological therapy. Several research groups around the world, including here in London, are investigating the basic neurobiology underpinning their psychoactive effects and how these may be used for clinical benefit. Psychedelics, generally, stimulate the 2a subtype of the serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) receptor, which appears predominantly in layer V of the human neocortex. Their pharmacological effect appears to be associated with a modulation of oscillatory amplitude and frequency of neural activity in regions of the brain associated with complex thought and emotion processing, particularly the Default Mode Network, resulting in a variable clinical state that, within a psychotherapeutically supportive setting, allows access to, and reprocessing of, repressed complexes of memory and emotion that may drive current maladaptive patterns of thinking, feeling and behaviour. Within this context small trials investigating the therapeutic efficacy of psychedelics in conditions such as unipolar depression, alcohol and drug addiction, obsessive compulsive disorder, chronic pain states and the existential anxiety associated with terminal disease and the prospect of death are underway, with promising early results.
The Maudsley Psychedelic Society was founded in 2015 and is dedicated to the exploration and critical analysis of this exciting and controversial area of psychiatry. We are pleased to present the inaugural lecture of the Society by Professor David Nutt, head of the Neuropsychopharmacology unit at Imperial College London. Professor Nutt will discuss ‘why it’s time to put psychedelics back into psychiatry’.
If you would like to find out more about the Maudsley Psychedelic Society, or to join, please send an email to james.rucker@kcl.ac.uk
‘Why It’s Time to Put Psychedelics Back into Psychiatry’
The Maudsley Psychedelic Society are delighted to launch their lecture series with an inaugural lecture from Professor David Nutt.
Professor David J Nutt
Edmund J Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology, Imperial College London
6pm, Wednesday 16th December,
The Wolfson Lecture Theatre, The Insititute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience,
Kings College London, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF
The extensive use of naturally occurring psychedelic compounds such as psilocybe ‘magic’ mushrooms (psilocybin), peyote cactus (mescaline) and ayahuasca (dimethyltryptamine) by geographically independent populations over millennia suggests they have a uniquely interesting interaction with human conscious experience and culture. This area has remained largely unexplored by scientific enquiry since the 1971 UN Convention on Drugs classified psychedelics as having no medically recognised use and the maximum potential for harm, despite evidence that they were useful in the treatment of non-psychotic mental health problems and minimal evidence of adverse events when used in medical settings.
Nearly half a century later, unipolar depressive disorder is set to become the leading cause of years lost to disability world-wide, with alcohol/drug addiction and anxiety disorders not far behind. The pharmacological pipeline in psychiatry is largely dry and whilst psychological therapies are used more than hitherto, many patients remain stuck in chronically maladaptive patterns of thinking, feeling and behaviour.
Within this context, attention has returned to psychedelics as pharmacological catalysts of mentally salutary change in psychological therapy. Several research groups around the world, including here in London, are investigating the basic neurobiology underpinning their psychoactive effects and how these may be used for clinical benefit. Psychedelics, generally, stimulate the 2a subtype of the serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) receptor, which appears predominantly in layer V of the human neocortex. Their pharmacological effect appears to be associated with a modulation of oscillatory amplitude and frequency of neural activity in regions of the brain associated with complex thought and emotion processing, particularly the Default Mode Network, resulting in a variable clinical state that, within a psychotherapeutically supportive setting, allows access to, and reprocessing of, repressed complexes of memory and emotion that may drive current maladaptive patterns of thinking, feeling and behaviour. Within this context small trials investigating the therapeutic efficacy of psychedelics in conditions such as unipolar depression, alcohol and drug addiction, obsessive compulsive disorder, chronic pain states and the existential anxiety associated with terminal disease and the prospect of death are underway, with promising early results.
The Maudsley Psychedelic Society was founded in 2015 and is dedicated to the exploration and critical analysis of this exciting and controversial area of psychiatry. We are pleased to present the inaugural lecture of the Society by Professor David Nutt, head of the Neuropsychopharmacology unit at Imperial College London. Professor Nutt will discuss ‘why it’s time to put psychedelics back into psychiatry’.
If you would like to find out more about the Maudsley Psychedelic Society, or to join, please send an email to james.rucker@kcl.ac.uk
![Avant Garde Dance: Dark Matter at Breakin' Convention 2012 [HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6vk4ibtBMZE/hqdefault.jpg "Avant Garde Dance: Dark Matter at Breakin' Convention 2012 [HD]")
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A shame that it cuts off. Thank you for the upload, though.