Renowned British researcher Sir Robin MacGregor Murray, MD, will be giving four public lectures in the SF Bay Area. Dr. Murray is the professor of Psychiatric Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London and one of the most influential researchers in psychiatry today. All events are free. PRINTABLE PDF FILE Click here
Lecture slides MS Power Point or PDF File for “Psychosis: Update on the Latest Treatments in Europe and the United States.” on Tuesday May 17, 2016.
Lecture slides MS Power Point or PDF file for “Marijuana, high potency cannabis and synthetic cannabinoids: Increasing risk of psychosis.” on Wednesday May 18, 2016.
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“Psychosis: Update on the Latest Treatments in Europe and the United States.”
E-mail registration required due to limited room capacity: Lauren_Olaiz@elcaminohospital.org
When: Tuesday, May 17, 2016, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
Where: El Camino Hospital, 2500 Grant Road, Mountain View (New Main Hospital, Conference rooms E, F &G) Map/directions click here
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“Marijuana, high potency cannabis and synthetic cannabinoids: Increasing risk of psychosis”
SAN FRANCISCO
When: Tuesday, May 17th 2016, 8:00-9:30am
Where: UCSF School of Nursing, Room N225, Parnassus Campus, 2 Koret Way, Universiry of California, San Francisco. Map/Directions Click here
UCSF Grand Rounds Website Click here
PALO ALTO
When: Wednesday, May 18, 2016, 7:30 – 9:00 p.m.
Where: Cubberley Community Center, Room H-6, 4000 Middlefield Rd, Palo Alto. Map/directions click here
STANFORD
When: Thursday, May 19, 2016, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Where: Stanford University, Li Ka Shing Center, Room 130, 291 Campus Drive, Stanford. Map and Directions Click here
“Psychosis: Update on the Latest Treatments in Europe and the United States.”
Description: European psychiatrists differ from their American counterparts in both the way they conceptualize schizophrenia and in the way they treat it. It is common to read articles by US neuroscientists which begin “Schizophrenia is a brain disease under genetic influence which causes debilitating symptoms and progresses to a chronic outcome. “ In contrast, most European experts regard schizophrenia as a clinical syndrome which lies at the extreme end of a continuum of psychotic symptoms that that stretches into the general population. It is easier to do epidemiological research in Europe than in the USA, and European researchers have demonstrated that a range of environmental factors increase the risk of schizophrenia e.g. perinatal hypoxia, childhood adversity, migration, drug use and intrusive life events. This talk will compare both European and American models. Professor Murray will further discuss the out-patient care and treatments for psychosis in Europe. He will share the report from the British Schizophrenia Commission which he chaired. There is no such similar analysis available in USA.
Reading: Dr. Murray’s report from Schizophrenia Commission Click Here
“Marijuana, high potency cannabis and synthetic cannabinoids : Increasing risk of psychosis”
Description: Both genetic and environmental factors are involved in causing psychotic conditions like schizophrenia. A proportion of people who develop psychosis have had cognitive and behavioural problems from early in life: this route into psychosis is secondary to neurodevelopmental abnormality. An alternative route arises from abuse of certain drugs. Thus, amphetamine and methamphetamine are well known to induce a paranoid psychosis; abuse of phencyclidine and ketamine can mimic the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. More importantly, there has been growing evidence linking marijuana use to psychosis. The studies of young people in the general population have shown that those who use marijuana (cannabis) have a greater risk of developing psychosis than non-users. Some people appear genetically susceptible, and those who start using in their early teens appear also particularly vulnerable. This talk will report the research result on the link between psychosis and tetrahydrocannibinol (THC), cannibidiol (CBD), high potency cannabis (skunk), and synthetic cannabinoids.
Reading: What Degree of Proof Do we Require? Cannabinoidsand Psychotic Disorders. Click here to read the article. More readings/links on our RESOURCE section under “Cannabis and Psychosis”.
Bio: Dr. Robin Murray is Professor of Psychiatric Research at the Institute of Psyc iatry, Kings College and indeed has spent most of his working life there apart from one year at NIMH in the USA. His particular interest is in psychosis, and he and his colleagues have contributed to the understanding that environmental factors such as obstetric events, drug abuse and social adversity dysregulate striatal dopamine and thus increase the risk of psychosis; he is currently most interested in gene-environmental interactions. He is also involved in testing new treatments for psychotic illnesses, and cares for people with psychosis at the Maudsley and Bethlem (formerly Bedlam) Hospitals. He has written over 700 articles, not all of them boring! He is the most frequently cited psychosis researcher outside the USA, has supervised 52 PhDs and 40 of his students have become full professors. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2010, the fourth psychiatrist ever to be elected (the first was Freud). In 2011, he received a knighthood from the Queen for his work in psychiatry.
Event sponsors: Bay Area Hearing Voices Network (BAHVN), South Bay Project Resource (SBPR), Stanford University, University of California, San Franscico, El Camino Hospital.
South Bay Project Resource 