In this episode of Psych Matters, A/Prof Suresh Muthukumaraswamy and Dr Chiranth Bhagavan discuss Suresh's talk 'A sceptical look at the use of psychedelic drugs in medicine'. While there is significant interest in the use of psychedelics as medicines in psychiatry the evidence base has a number of limitations and these are delved into in this discussion.

Interested listeners can read in more detail:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00048674221081763?journalCode=anpa

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17512433.2021.1933434

A/Prof Suresh Muthukumaraswamy is an Associate Professor in The School of Pharmacy at The University of Auckland. His research Suresh’s main research interests are in understanding how therapies alter brain function and behaviour and in testing methodologies to measure these changes in both healthy individuals and patient groups – particularly in depressed patients. He has investigated over 20 different CNS drugs and began research into psychedelics in 2011.

Dr Chiranth Bhagavan is a senior psychiatry registrar and consultation-liaison advanced trainee currently in a dual clinical and academic role in Auckland, New Zealand. 

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