#39 Psychedelic Insights Part 6: Kim Kuypers – microdosing and self-optimization

In this episode we talk to Kim Kuypers who is Associate Professor with Maastricht University, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience. She also obtained her Ph.D. there, in 2007. For the following four years, she remained in Maastricht conducting postdoctoral research into the effects of MDMA on memory and driving performance. Additionally, in 2011, she was also a postdoctoral researcher at Belgium’s Ghent University where she studied the risk analysis of alcohol and drugs in traffic accidents. Her aim is to understand the neurobiology underlying flexible cognition, empathy, and well-being. Dr. Kuypers and her team employ a psychopharmacological model to study the acute and longer term effects of psychedelics on these behaviors and their underlying biology. Dr. Kuypers and the team at Maastricht have been investigating the optimal dose of microdosing LSD to improve mood, cognition and pain resilience, with minimal side effects and interferences to day to day life. In 2018, Dr. Kuypers was named the Principal Investigator for the Netherlands in the MAPS Phase 2 Clinical Trials of MDMA-Assisted Therapy for PTSD in Europe. This episode was conducted on zoom a couple of weeks after the conference. We get to talk to professor Kuypers mainly about her studies on microdosing, potential side-effects of the practice, new trends and disputes in the field, and where the science of microdosing is headed next. Host: Kevin MikkelsenProduction: Heine VolderMusic: Victor LangeThis podcast was made in a collaboration between Regnfang and Cepda - the Danish Center for Psychedelic Awareness.The music in the podcast was made by Victor Lange.Thank you to the OPEN Foundation for organizing and funding the ICPR conference and for providing us a quiet space during the conference for doing the podcast recordings.Illustrations by Lizette RosagerFollow the links to learn more about Cepda and Regnfang