George K. Aghajanian, M.D., professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at Yale University (http://www.med.yale.edu/pharm/aghajan.html) was selected as the recipient of the 2001 Heffter Award for Outstanding Research. For nearly four decades Professor Aghajanian has been studying how drugs work in the brain, and is internationally recognized for his research on hallucinogens. Dr. Aghajanian’s work involves studies of single brain neurons, and how they respond to various chemical neurotransmitters. He has been a pioneer in exploring mechanisms by which serotonin (5-HT) and hallucinogenic drugs (acting via 5-HT2A receptors) enhance glutamatergic EPSPs/EPSCs (excitatory postsynaptic potentials/currents) in apical dendrites of layer V pyramidal cells of prefrontal cortex in rat brain. These studies represent the finest level of functional resolution that has yet been achieved in studies of the mechanism of action of hallucinogens. A Medline search through 2001 revealed that Dr. Aghajanian had published more than 250 peer-reviewed research articles focused on the effects of drugs on brain neurons. In October 2000 Dr. Aghajanian was also named a senior member of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine http://www.med.yale.edu/external/pubs/ym_sp01/alumni/alumni3.htm.
We congratulate Dr. Aghajanian for his many remarkable achievements.
For Public Service
Dr. Kenneth Alper, M.D., an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at the New York University School of Medicine, became interested in ibogaine in 1995 when he began evaluating patients before and after ibogaine treatment. Impressed by the clinical evidence of its effectiveness, he initiated projects intended to focus mainstream attention on the development of ibogaine. These efforts included publication in the peer-reviewed scientific literature of a series of ibogaine treatments for opioid withdrawal conducted by lay “treatment guides,” and authoring a protocol for a study to determine the effectiveness of ibogaine in treating heroin withdrawal. Dr. Alper also organized the First International Conference on Ibogaine, held at the NYU School of Medicine in 1999, and edited and personally produced a volume on the Conference proceedings, which was the first book on the subject to appear in the English language scientific literature. All of Dr. Alper’s ibogaine work was done without compensation, and at significant personal expense to him, and this award recognizes that dedication and sacrifice.
For Outstanding Clinical Research
Dr. Evgeny Krupitsky, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sci., is Chief of the Research Department, Leningrad Regional Center of Addictions, and Clinical Director of Research, Regional Center for Research in Addiction and Psychopharmacology, affiliated with St. Petersburg State Pavlov Medical University, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. For the past fifteen years, he has directed the only research program in the world using a psychoactive drug to create a profoundly altered state of consciousness in order to treat a psychiatric disorder. He and his research team originally discovered that ketamine, used medically as a dissociative anesthetic at higher doses, facilitated a psychologically transformative experience in alcoholic patients. They showed that a single ketamine psychotherapy session not only improved abstinence and prevented relapse, but also improved many negative beliefs the patients held about themselves and their addictions. He now has begun applying the same methods to help patients with heroin addiction, with promising early results.
