Psychiatrist Allen J. Frances Says Normal Behaviour is Being Diagnosed as Mental Illness

Allen J. Frances is an American psychiatrist who has become famous for his critique of the DSM-5, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Mental Disorders. He was also the former chair of the task force that published the DSM-IV, the fourth edition of the DSM. The DSM is published by the American…

View Post

Professor David Nutt Explains Why We Should Study Psychedelic Drugs

This lecture, ‘Why Study Psychedelic Drugs?’, is from ‘A Discussion on Scientific Research with Psychedelic Drugs’, a conference chaired by Professor David Nutt at Imperial College London (12/06/2013). In this lecture, Professor David Nutt outlines why the scientific investigation of psychedelic drugs is worthwhile and valuable. He points to the fact that actual scientific discoveries…

View Post

Cannabis Would Be Safer If It Were Legal

Many know that the ‘high’ or effects of cannabis are caused by its psychoactive ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). This might lead one to assume that if you could consume the THC, without any of the plant matter (either by smoking or eating it), then you could experience a pure cannabis high. In fact, what you would…

View Post

How Ketamine Can Be Used to Treat Mental Illness

Ketamine is a dissociative drug, meaning that it produces feelings of dissociation – dissociation from one’s environment and even dissociation from one’s own body. The drug is used in human and veterinary medicine, both as an anaesthetic (to knock the patient out) and as an analgesic (to numb any feelings of pain). Ketamine is also…

View Post