Neuropsychopharmacology Unit

Department members

• Prof David Nutt - DM FRCP FRCPsych FMedSci Prof of Neuropsychopharmacology
• Prof Anne Lingford-Hughes - PhD MRCPsych Prof of Addiction Psychiatry
• Prof Marc Laruelle [part time] - MD PhD Prof of Molecular Imaging
• Dr Sue Wilson PhD [part-time] -Senior Research Fellow
• Dr Robin Tyacke - PhD Lab Manager
• Ms Margaret Collett - Personal Assistant
• Research fellows:Dr Alesandro Collasanti and Dr Robin Carhart-Harris

This is a newly created department that was founded by the appointment of Professor David Nutt to the Edmond J Safra Chair of Neuropsychopharmacology in December 2008.

The goal of the department is to pioneer research into neuro-psychiatric disorders merging pharmacological approaches with state-of-the-art imaging techniques. The particular emphasis is on brain disorders such as addiction dementia schizophrenia and affective disorders.

Recent discoveries include clarifying the role of dopamine in both schizophrenia and opioid addiction - the discovery of an antagonist of the memory-blocking properties of alcohol - showing opioid receptors are involved in alcohol as well as heroin dependence and developing new potential PET tracers for studying noradrenaline and imidazoline receptors in conditions such as depression and dementias.

There are close links with the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre where DJN and ALH have conducted PET imaging studies for many years and also with the GSK Clinical Imaging Centre, which is collocated in the Burlington-Danes building alongside the dept. DJN leads an international consortium underthe EuroBioFund program that is seeking new PET tracers to allow measurement of endogenous neurotransmitter release in the human brain.

Recent research papers

1. Daglish MRC, Williams TM, Wilson SJ, Taylor LG, Eap CB, Augsburger M, Giroud C, Brooks DJ, Myles JS, Grasby P, Lingford-Hughes AR, Nutt DJ [2008] Investigating the role of dopamine in human heroin addiction using [11C]-raclopride positron emission tomography. Brit J Psychiatry 193: 65-72
2. Nutt, DJ, Besson M, Wilson SJ, Dawson JR, Lingford-Hughes AR. Blockade of alcohol's amnestic activity in humans by an alpha5 subtype benzodiazepine receptor inverse agonist [2007] Neuropharmacology 53(7):810-20. Epub 2007 Aug 16
3. Nutt, DJ; King, LA; Saulsbury, W; Blakemore, C [2007] Developing a rational scale for assessing the risks of drugs of potential misuse Lancet 369:1047-1053
4. Williams TM, Daglish MRC, Lingford-Hughes A, Taylor LG, Hammers A, Brooks, DJ, Grasby P, Myles JS, Nutt DJ [2007] Brain opioid receptor binding in early abstinence from opioid dependence: an [11C]diprenorphine PET study. Brit J Psychiatry 2007 Jul;191:63-9
5. Nash JR, Sargent PA, Rabiner EA, Hood SD, Argyropoulos SV, Potokar JP, Grasby PM, Nutt DJ [2008] A positron emission tomography study of serotonin 5-HT1A receptor availability in untreated and recovered patients with panic disorder. Brit J Psychiatry 193: 1-6
6. Montgomery AJ, Lingford-Hughes AR, Egerton A, Nutt DJ, Grasby PM [2007] The effect of nicotine on striatal dopamine release in man: an [11C]raclopride PET study Synapse 2007 Aug;61(8):637-45