Professor Val Curran
Professor of Psychopharmacology
Telephone : 020 7679 1898
E-mail : v.curran@ucl.ac.uk
My research interests include
- Enhancing our understanding of the neurochemistry of memory, cognition and emotional processing.
- Differentiating the actions of different cannabinoids on schizotypal symptoms, cognition and addiction-related processes.
- Exploring pharmacological models of psychotic symptoms such as delusions using ketamine and cannabinoids in both challenge studies (acute administration to healthy volunteers) and natural populations of chronic users of these substances.
- Determining the short- and long-term effects of 'recreational' drugs such as MDMA (ecstasy), cannabis, stimulants & ketamine on cognition, emotion and the brain.
- Understanding how opiates prescribed for pain affect patients’ cognition and emotional processing, including the perception of pain-related stimuli.
- Elucidating the processes involved in the transition from drug use to drug addiction.
Recent and current grants
- 2004-2006 Piccini P, Brooks D, Grasby P and Curran HV. Parkinson’s Disease Society. An in vivo PET study into the striatal toxicity of MDMA (‘ecstasy’) as a possible cause of Parkinsonism.
- 2004-2007 Mackenzie-Ross S, Curran HV, Brewin C, Henry J. DEFRA. A case controlled study of neuropsychological and psychiatric functioning in sheep farmers exposed to organophosphate pesticides.
- 2005-2008 Curran HV. ESRC. The determinants and psychological consequences of ketamine use.
- 2008 Curran HV & Morgan CJA. AERC.The acute effects of alcohol on prospective memory and related executive functions.
- 2008-2012 Curran HV & Morgan CJA. MRC. What determines an individual's vunerability to the harmful effects of cannabis?
- 2009-2011 Kamboj SK, Morgan, CJA & Curran HV. MRC. Exploring the potential of D-Cycloserine and cannabidiol to enhance cue exposure therapies in substance dependence.
- 2009-2012 Curran HV. MRC & ESRC. Salience attribution and psychotic-like symptoms in ketamine and cannabis users.
- 2011 Kamboj SK, Bisby JA & Curran HV. AERC. Acute effects of alcohol on spatial navigation and processing of dynamic facial affect
Internal Collaborators
Dr Celia Morgan
Dr Brigitta Brandner
Prof Eileen Joyce
Dr Jon Roiser
Dr Sunjeev Kamboj
Dr Oliver Mason
Prof Chris Brewin
External Collaborators
Prof Paul Grasby
Dr Paul Fletcher
Dr Peter Rendell
Dr Brian Levine
Dr Alyson Bond
Dr Peter Ulhaas
Dr Paula Piccini
Dr Paul Davis
Selected publications
Morgan CJA & Curran HV (2008). Effects of cannabidiol on schizophrenia-like symptoms in people who use cannabis. British Journal of Psychiatry 192, 306-307.
Muetzelfeldt L, Kamboj S, Rees H, Taylor J, Morgan CJA & Curran HV (2008). Journey through the K-hole: phenomenological aspects of ketamine use. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 95(3), 219-229.
Curran HV and Drummond C (2005) State of Science Review: Psychological Treatments for substance misuse and dependence. Foresight Brain Science, Addiction and Drugs Review. http://www.foresight.gov.uk/Brain Science/Psychological Treatments.pdf
Curran HV (2000) Psychopharmacological Approaches to Human Memory. In M Gazzaniga (Ed) The New Cognitive Neurosciences. MIT Press: Boston (pp 797-805).
Curran HV and Weingartner H (2002) Psychopharmacology of Memory. In A Baddeley, B Wilson and M Kopelman (eds) The Handbook of Memory Disorders. Wiley: New York. (pp 123-141).
