Department of Psychiatry
PAYKEL LECTURE
Tuesday 8 September 2015
5 – 7pm
"Brain on Drugs: from Reward to Addiction"
Delivered by:
Dr Nora D. Volkow, M.D. Director
National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, Maryland
The Martin Cohen Lecture Theatre
Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute
The Li Ka Shing Centre
Robinson Way
Cambridge Biomedical Campus
Cambridge CB2 0RE
To be followed by a wine reception
Director of the National Institute on Drug
Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institute of
Health in May 2003. NIDA supports most
of the world’s research on the health
aspects of drug abuse and addiction.
the dopamine system affecting, among
others, the functions of frontal brain
regions involved with motivation, drive,
and pleasure in addiction. She has also
made important contributions to the
neurobiology of obesity, ADHD, and aging.
Dr. Volkow’s work has been instrumental
in demonstrating that drug addiction is a
disease of the human brain. As a
research psychiatrist and scientist, Dr.
Volkow pioneered the use of brain imaging
to investigate the toxic effects and
addictive properties of abusable drugs.
Her studies have documented changes in
Dr. Volkow was born in Mexico, attended
the Modern American School, and earned
her medical degree from the National
University of Mexico in Mexico City, where
she received the Robins Award for best
medical student of her generation. Her
psychiatric residency was at New York
University, where she earned the Laughlin
Nora D. Volkow, M.D., became
Fellowship Award as one of the 10
Outstanding Psychiatric Residents in the
USA.
Academy of Sciences and the
International Prize from the French
Institute of Health and Medical Research
for her pioneering work in brain imaging
and addiction science. She was recently
named one of Time Magazine’s “Top 100
People Who Shape our World” and was
included as one of the 20 people to watch
by Newsweek magazine in its “Who’s Next
in 2007” feature. She was also included in
Washingtonian Magazine’s 2009 and 2011
list of the “100 Most Powerful Women” and
named “Innovator of the year” by U.S.
News & World Report in 2000.
Dr. Volkow spent most of her professional
career at the Department of Energy’s
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in
Upton, New York, where she held several
leadership positions including Director of
Nuclear Medicine, Chairman of the
Medical Department, and Associate
Director for Life Sciences. In addition, Dr.
Volkow was a Medical School at the State
University of New York (SUNY)-Stony
Brook.
Dr. Volkow has published more than 530
peer-reviewed articles and written more
than 80 book chapters and non-peer
reviewed manuscripts, and has also edited
three books on neuroimaging for mental
and addictive disorders.
During her professional career, Dr. Volkow
has been the recipient of multiple awards,
including her selection for membership in
the Institute of Medicine in the National
***
Programme:
The 2015 Paykel Lecture
5.00pm
Refreshments will be served to guests on arrival
5.30pm
Chairman’s Introduction – Professor Ed Bullmore
5.40pm
LECTURE: "Brain on Drugs: from Reward to Addiction"
Delivered by: Dr Nora D. Volkow
6.30pm
Vote of thanks: Professor Barbara Sahakian, Cognitive
Neuropsychology
6.30 – 7.00pm
Wine reception
Previous Lectures:
Thursday 5 May 1988
Professor John K Wing
‘What Care? Which Community?’
Monday 15 May 1989
Dr Elliot S. Gershon
‘The Scientific Revolution in Genetics and
Psychiatry’
Thursday 4 October 1990
Professor George Winokur
‘The Correct Classification of the Manias
and Depressions’
Thursday 30 May 1991
Professor Norman Kreitman
‘Understanding the Epidemiology of
Suicide’
Wednesday 1 July 1998
Professor Robin Murray
‘Schizophrenia: Early Misconnections to
Adult Misconceptions’
Tuesday 8 June 1999
Professor Terrie Moffitt
‘Developmental Perspective on Anti-Social
Personality Disorder: 25 years of
Longitudinal Study’
Tuesday 6 June 2000
Professor David Nutt
‘Imaging and Imagination in Anxiety’
Friday 28 September 2001
Dr Myrna Weissman
‘How we began to study depression: a
tribute to Eugene Paykel’
Thursday 21 May 1992
Professor David Goldberg
‘The Psychiatry of General Practice:
Altering a Filter to Mental Health Care’
Thursday 12 May 1994
Professor Sir Michael L. Rutter
‘Why do some People have so much
Stress?’
Tuesday 20 May 2003
Professor Jules Angst
‘The Mood spectrum: New Developments’
Thursday 4 May 1995
Professor George W. Brown
‘The Psychosocial Origins of Depression
and Anxiety Disorders: Recent Evidence’
Thursday 12 June 1996
Dr Robert E. Kendell
‘The Environmental Contribution to the
Aetiology of Schizophrenia’
Thursday 1 May 1997
Professor Peter McGuffin
‘The Molecular Genetics of Schizophrenia’
Thursday 26 May 2005
Professor PJ Cowen
‘Recovering from depression: It's not over
when it's over’
Wednesday 24th May 2006
Professor Paul Harrison
‘Genes for schizophrenia and how they
operate: what does it mean?’
Tuesday 18 September 2007
Professor German Berrios
‘The Epistemology of Psychiatry’
Thursday 13 May 2004
Professor S Wessely
‘Something old, something new,
something borrowed, something blue –
the story of the (?first) ‘Gulf War
Syndrome’
Monday 12 September 2008
Professor Eric Taylor
‘Impulsiveness and its pathology’
Thursday 7 October 2009
Dr Wayne Drevets MD
‘Neuroimaging studies of reward
processing in major depression.’
Thursday 7 October 2010
Professor Peter Fonagy
‘Mentalization based Therapy – State of
the Art’
Tuesday 2 October 2012
Professor Eileen Joyce
‘The Cognitive Impairment in
Schizophrenia: Neural Basis and Clinical
Relevance’
Wednesday 30 November 2013
Professor Guy Goodwin
‘The Bipolar Phenotype’
Tuesday 19th December 2014
Professor Simon Lovestone
‘From shaggy to dikkopf; deconvoluting
the amyloid cascade in Alzheimer’s
Disease (and some thoughts on
why mice don’t get dementia but killer
whales should’
Tuesday 8th September 2015
Dr Nora D. Volkow
‘Brain on Drugs: from Reward to
Addiction