Webinar Mon April 7th 2025 Anna Becker: LSD for depression and the effects of SSRIs and ketanserin on psychedelics

At least in the popular culture of the 1950s and 1960s, LSD was almost synonymous with “psychedelic drugs”. In the current second major wave of psychedelic research, psilocybin has received much more attention than LSD. Two relevant reasons for this are the shorter effects of psilocybin and the negative stigma attached to LSD. But as psychedelic research has become more mainstream, increasing attention has also gradually been given to the study of LSD.

One of the things LSD has recently been researched for is as an aid for the treatment of depression, about which the Finnish Association for Psychedelic Research will organize a webinar lecture on Tuesday April 7th, 2025, at 6PM UTC+3. In the webinar, psychopharmacology PhD student Anna Becker from the University of Basel, Switzerland, will present her research on the topic. Her work covers both research on the physiological processes related to psychedelics and the psychotherapeutic applications of psychedelics. 

In addition to her depression research, Becker will also present her research investigating how SSRI medication, often used for the treatment of depression, and ketanserin, a potent 5-HT2a serotonin receptor antagonist, affect the subjective effects of psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD.

We offer this webinar as a pay what you can event: you can participate without paying, but by paying, you can help us produce more events like this and ensure that we can keep offering them to people regardless of their financial circumstances.

0 € – register here
5 € – buy ticket here
10 € – buy ticket here
20 € – buy ticket here

The event contains a Q&A section and the total length is 2 hours. Please note that while the event will be recorded, this time the recording will only be available to our full members. More about membership types here. 

You can also support us by paying our membership fee for 2025. You’ll find our membership products on the main page of our web store. We also accept donations. 

About the speaker:

Anna Becker studied Clinical Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Basel. Since 2020 she has been a PhD candidate in the psychopharmacology research group of Prof. Matthias Liechti at the University Hospital Basel where she investigates the role of 5-HT2A receptor down-regulation and antagonism in the acute effects of psilocybin and LSD. In this function, she has accompanied over 200 psychedelic experiences. She is interested in the basic physiological processes of psychedelics as well as their psychotherapeutic applications. She started psychotherapy training in 2021 and has been working clinically since. Hence, she was able to conduct LSD assisted therapy sessions within the “LSD against depression” phase II study in Basel.