Tomáš Páleníček

Tomáš Páleníček is a researcher and psychiatrist in the Czech Republic where he studies a variety of psychedelics at the NIHM.

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Tomáš Páleníček has been employed at the National Institute of Mental Health, Czech Republic (NIHM CR, formerly Prague Psychiatric Centre) since 2001. He started his career as a PhD student in preclinical research, studying the neurobiology of schizophrenia in animal models. Shortly after, he received his first grant funding and extended his research interests towards the neurobiology of psychedelic drugs (e.g., LSD, psilocin, mescaline, 2C-B), entactogens (ecstasy / MDMA), and new synthetic drugs.

Simultaneous to working on his PhD he passed his training as a clinical psychiatrist and also in clinical electroencephalography (EEG). He defended his thesis in early 2009 and in 2012 he became a licensed psychiatrist. Over the last few years, he contributes significantly to human clinical research. He is involved as a co-investigator of ketamine projects in NIHM CR, where ketamine is used to model psychosis and to treat depression in humans.

For the last four years, he is a principal investigator of the first project in the Czech Republic that is intended to study the acute effects of cannabis in healthy volunteers. Finally, he is also a principal investigator of the first human clinical trial in the Czech Republic studying the effects of psilocybin in human volunteers.

Currently, his research interests are oriented to the area of EEG functional connectivity. He continues his clinical practice as a psychiatrist in a local outpatient clinic. Recently is one of the founders of the “Foundation for Psychedelic Research” based in the Czech Republic.

Notable Research Papers

• A single psilocybin dose is associated with long-term increased mindfulness, preceded by a proportional change in neocortical 5-HT2A receptor binding (Madsen et al., 2020)
• Psilocybin–summary of knowledge and new perspectives (Tylš, Páleníček & Horáček, 2014)
• Relationship of ketamine’s antidepressant and psychotomimetic effects in unipolar depression (Sos et al., 2013)

Find more on Google Scholar or PubMed

In our database you will also find him as an author on more papers.

Media

• Tomas Palenicek: Psilocybin´s Effect on Perception, Cognition and Brain Activity (Colloquium on Psychedelic Psychiatry, 2018)
• What Is The Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelics? Tomás Páleníček (Science and Nonduality, August 2020)