Psyched: Educational Psychiatry Podcast

Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners.   In this episode, we begin to explore the neurobiology of the serotonin system — along with key pharmacological agents (SSRIs and classical psychedelics) that act on this system — with guest expert Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, a neuroscientist and head of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London.   Our discussion is more theoretical than directly clinically relevant, striving to provide a mechanistic understanding of how serotonin functions within the brain and how serotonin-modulating drugs influence this system. The episode was inspired by a review published by our guest expert and Dr. David Nutt called “Serotonin and brain function: a tale of two receptors” (cited below). If you are interested in the topic, you might consider reading this review in full! Please note that the figures referenced during this episode can be accessed at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/figure/10.1177/0269881117725915.   Th