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Professor David J Nutt

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Professor David J Nutt 2016 BAP LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Professor David J Nutt David Nutt received the BAP Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2016 summer meeting in Brighton. It gives me much pleasure to write about his long and very productive career in both preclinical and clinical psychopharmacology. I am primarily emphasizing his scientific achievements, both internationally and domestic, and his role in making the public aware of the need for evidence-based clinical science. It is scarcely necessary to detail his commitment to the BAP both as a former President and also editor of the Journal of Psychopharmacology for over 25 years. I have known David for nearly 35 years ever since he joined the MRC Clinical Pharmacology Unit in Oxford and undertook preclinical research for his MD. His enormous enthusiasm for both basic and clinical pharmacology and his impressive abilities were apparent from the outset, and in just 3 years we published together 11 papers and a book chapter, all in major journals (he also published work with other colleagues). A particular interest of David was the translation of basic research to clinical studies in psychiatry, something both David Grahame-Smith, the Unit Director, and I were already enthusiastic about. He then undertook clinical research in psychiatry in Oxford before appointments at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, the University of Bristol and now Imperial College, London. David’s commitment to communicating clinical pharmacology research to the public is, of course, known to many people, and he has been tireless in demonstrating the need for evidence-based decision making when discussing the risks and benefits of drugs, particularly recreational drugs. In that regard it is worth mentioning that his book "Drugs without the hot air" won the Transmission Prize for Communicating Science in 2014. Because of this commitment to communication he was the recipient of the 2013 John Maddox Prize for promoting sound science and evidence on a matter of public interest, whilst facing difficulty or hostility in doing so. However, many people do not realize the huge body of groundbreaking clinical psychopharmacology research David has been involved in, or responsible for, and it is worth emphasizing some of this work that has been presented in over 550 publications. With Hilary Little he discovered the concept of inverse agonism at the GABAA- benzodiazepine receptor and David, Philip Cowen and I showed how this could lead to anxiety and seizures in animals. Subsequently David used PET and PK-PD challenge techniques to reveal similar processes underpin the human disorders. He developed a theory for benzodiazepine tolerance and withdrawal in rodents and explored new interventions for it with clinical applications by taking the inverse agonist concept into proof-of-concept studies for new treatments for alcoholism. He developed methods for evaluating drugs acting at the GABAA - benzodiazepine receptor complex in humans in order to test theories of their involvement in illnesses such as panic disorder, and undertook the first PET PK-PD study in normal volunteers and in alcoholics and the first clinical trial of a benzodiazepine receptor partial agonist in panic disorder. David was a pioneer in the use of selective 5-HT reuptake blockers (SSRIs) in the treatment of depression and several anxiety disorders (panic and social anxiety) and using PD measures of 5-HT function explored the role of this neurotransmitter in the therapeutic mechanisms of SSRIs when used in anxiety and depression and initiated the first UK studies on the therapeutic potential of 5-HT-acting drugs such as psilocybin and MDMA. He also increased our understanding of the role of noradrenaline in brain function through developing and human testing of new research tools, particularly selective α2 -adrenoceptor antagonists and PET probes, taking these into human studies in depression, sleep addiction and anxiety and developed methods for assessing noradrenaline receptor function in humans. He also used PET and PK-PD methods for clarifying the role of dopamine and endorphin systems in human alcohol and heroin addictions and developing new opioid receptor ligands for their study. He used a translational model of insomnia with pharmacological validation in rats and humans, pioneering new treatments for sleep disorders in humans such as SSRIs for night terrors and 5-HT2 blockers for insomnia in depression. In addition, one must spotlight the fact that he has made major contributions to the discipline of clinical pharmacology and psychopharmacology through leadership of national and European psychopharmacology research organizations and societies. He is a former president of the British Association for Psychopharmacology, the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the British Neuroscience Association and the European Brain Council. Everyone in the BAP is aware of the enormous enthusiasm and good humour that David brings to his dealings with every individual he meets. Over the years he has trained and worked with many psychopharmacologists, many of whom are members of the BAP. The list of those he has worked with would fill another page, so I trust that they will forgive me for not naming them. However, I am certain that, like me, they are delighted that the BAP has recognized David’s clinical and preclinical psychopharmacology achievements over many years, and his major role in educating the public on the importance of pharmacology in evaluating evidence on which decision making should be made. A. Richard Green School of Life Sciences University of Nottingham Medical School .
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