DIAS event: Mikael Palner - Psychedelic drugs: history, psychiatry, and society

Associate Professor Mikael Palner from SDU researches the potential of psychedelic drugs to treat mental health conditions like anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. In this DIAS talk, Palner will cover the history of psychedelic drugs in psychiatry and the clinical evidence supporting their effects. He will also explain how these drugs interact with the brain and what decades of recreational use reveal about their safety. Following this introduction to his field of research, Palner will join DIAS Chair Christine Stabell Benn for a discussion exploring the credibility of claims that psychedelics are wonder drugs capable of: 

• Restoring health in people experiencing illness
• Enhancing health in people who are already healthy
• Sparking groundbreaking new research ideas and insights.

About Mikael Palner

Mikael Palner is an Associate Professor at SDU’s Department of Clinical Research and leads the Neurobiology Research Unit at Copenhagen University Hospital (Rigshospitalet). He earned his PhD and master’s degree under Professor Gitte Moos Knudsen, contributing to the development of 25CN-HBOH, a highly selective 5-HT2A agonist, and the PET tracer 11C-Cimbi-36, used to evaluate drug occupancy in humans.

Palner completed his postdoc at Stanford University, focusing on PET imaging in the Molecular Imaging Program, working with cancer and brain targets, including Sigma-1 receptors. Back in Denmark, he established his own research team and heads the preclinical imaging core facility at the University of Southern Denmark. His current research involves preclinical functional [18F]FDG PET imaging of neuronal circuits and behavioral assessment in rats following neuromodulation and psychedelic drug actions.

Mikael Palner is also an active voice in public discourse on psychiatric diseases and psychedelic drugs.

Access Mikael Palner's publications here.

6 November 2024
At the DIAS Auditorium
OPEN FOR ALL