
In our first episode of 2025, Hannah Deacon and Prof Mike Barnes sit down with Dr Niraj Singh, a consultant psychiatrist and experienced prescriber of medical cannabis, to ask: What’s Your Why?
Dr Niraj Singh is a highly regarded consultant psychiatrist, with extensive experience in the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders as well as neurodevelopmental conditions including ADHD and Autism.
Using a holistic approach, he has a strong interest in alternative treatments and was one of the first doctors to prescribe medical cannabis in the UK back in 2019.
After admitting he almost didn’t go through with his first prescription, he says he has seen cannabis-based medicine make real positive change in his patients' lives.
In his conversation with Hannah and Mike, Dr Singh shares what brought him to a career in medicine (despite being told his GCSE grades weren’t good enough) and how he became frustrated with the lack of effective treatments and over reliance on pills in psychiatry.
“We have hit a wall, so we have to be creative,” he says. “This doesn't just give people hope, it actually works.”
Dr Singh now devotes a significant amount of his time to raising awareness and educating his colleagues at the Royal College of Psychiatry and other medical bodies. As a member of the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society, he is also passionate about ensuring clinicians are supported to feel confident and safe when prescribing cannabis-based medicines.
“We do need to get it right for the clinicians coming into this sector.”
“We need to support clinicians through their prescribing journey, to help them understand that this is a tool that they can use, that is a tool they can feel confident using, that it’s safe, it’s effective, and so they feel reassured that actually the side effects are minimal.”
Hear more from Hannah and Mike’s interview with Dr Singh below or via your usual podcast app.
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