Robin Carhart-Harris: Psilocybin vs Antidepressants

Named one of Time Magazine’s most influential people of 2021, Robin Carhart-Harris conducts some of the most impactful psychedelic research in the world.

On the podcast, we review Robin’s early research with MDMA and his involvement with the first fMRI and MEG studies of LSD. We talk about his 2016 study of psilocybin’s efficacy with treatment-resistant depression and his most recent head-to-head comparison of the psychedelic with the SSRI Escitalopram (Lexapro). The outcome of that study calling into question a generation of psychiatric scales. 

As the former Head of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris is now moving to the Neuroscape Psychedelic Division at UCSF. For 15 years, his research has focused on how drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, DMT and MDMA work in the brain, and how they may be useful in treating disorders such as depression.‍ Robin is also an advisor to Maya, the measurement-based care platform that makes this show possible.

Links

• Robin Carhart-Harris
• Time Magazine
• Adam Gazzaley
• Neuroscape at UCSF

Timestamps

• :06 - Robin’s early career from a masters in psychoanalysis to early experiments with MDMA
• :12 - fMRI and MEG studies of psychedelics
• :16 - Robin’s first study of treatment-resistant depression in 2016
• :30 - The first ever study of psychedelics head to head with an antidepressant
• :40 - Robin’s future research
• :45 - Robin speaks to psychedelic therapists