Opening Talk — Prof. Dr. Matthias Liechti & ALPS Team

The video is the opening talk of the 2025 ALPS Conference, held at Campus Biotech in Geneva. Federico Saroli, co-founder and CEO of ALPS Foundation, introduces the conference’s mission and values, drawing parallels between the stigma faced by early primatologists like Jane Goodall and the current stigma around psychedelic research. He highlights the growth of student associations across Switzerland and Europe, and presents ALPS’s activities: a patient access fund, consulting for students, research projects, and educational programs like the summer school. He introduces the concept of ‘culture of consciousness’ by philosopher Thomas Metzinger, emphasizing the importance of understanding and educating about altered states of consciousness. Then, Prof. Dr. Matthias Liechti, professor of psychopharmacology at the University of Basel, provides an overview of the Swiss limited use program for psychedelics. He explains that medical doctors can use MDMA, psilocybin, and LSD with individual patient authorizations, and that the program is not limited to specific indications. He presents data on the number of authorizations, which has increased over the years, with psilocybin now the most used substance. He shows that depression is the most treated condition, followed by PTSD and anxiety. He describes the minimal data set collected from physicians, including session frequency, acute effect strength, and clinical global impression, noting that patients are generally severely ill but improve. He compares the Swiss program to those in Australia and Canada, highlighting its larger scale and broader indications. Finally, Rafael Soni, co-CTO of ALPS, briefly introduces the experiential activities offered at the conference, such as meditation sessions.