Our past week was absolutely jam packed with academic visits, lectures, food, and activities.
Day 0
Unsurprisingly, Sunday morning started with me sleeping through my alarm and almost having to find an alternative way to meet my class in Munich. But luckily, a friend woke me up and we made it to the airport ready to begin our week long Psychopharmacology Study Tour!
Upon arrival we dropped our bags at the tower of terror (in a good way) vibey hotel and made our way to Apostel’s Restaurant for our first group lunch. We then had the rest of the day off to explore Munich and even got to catch the tail end of Oktoberfest!
Day 1
The first academic visit of the week was to the Institute of Medical Psychology at Ludwig Maximilians University where we attended a talk about placebos and nocebos. Something that’s so often overlooked in medicine and many of the classes I have taken is the effect that the environment and even the patient’s own beliefs in the medicine can have on the effects of a drug. This talk was a great way to learn more about how the placebo effect can be advantageously used to improve medicine.
Following the talk we all met up at the famous Hofbräuhaus München for a group lunch, and then spent the afternoon visiting the Deutsches Science and Technology Museum.
Day 2
Tuesday’s academic visit was a great follow up to Monday’s with a discussion of homeopathy – an interesting system of alternative medicine. The effects of homeopathy come from the belief that our bodies are able to self cure using miniscule amounts of active substances as stimulation.
It’s no secret that car companies run Munich, so straight after the homeopathy talk we made our way to the BMW museum to explore the car culture of the city.
It was incredible to see all the old and new technology that BMW uses and the flawless car designs they implement.
Day 3
This was the day I had been looking forward to all week; it was the day of our Bavarian Food Tour.
Upon meeting our guide he walked us to a traditional German restaurant where we all got to try Weisswursts (Bavarian white sausage) with pretzels and sweet mustard. But that was only the start. We proceeded to spend the next two hours walking around the streets of Munich trying a range of different cuisines from organic spreads to fruit and desserts.
Wednesday’s academic visits also exceeded expectations with a series of four interesting talks on:
- Drug discovery
- The genetics of schizophrenia
- Cannabis use and schizophrenia
- Animal models of psychiatric diseases
Did you know it costs $5-10 billion to discover a new drug?! Neither did I until the drug discovery talk.
Day 4
Our final academic visit was to Diakonia – an economy-profit organization that offers those with mental illnesses perpetual social insurance contributions ranging from small jobs to full-time employment. They also aim to provide the unemployed with short term jobs while preparing them for re-entry into the mainstream labor market. At the end of the talk and tour we even got the opportunity to shop in one of Diakonia’s second hand stores, which really reinforced all the amazing work that they do. Given that Thursday was also world mental health day, the timing was perfect.
Day 5
After packing our bags and checking out we made our way to the the Dachau Concentration Camp where we spent the final day of our trip. While it was a tremendously saddening experience, our tour guide made sure we understood the importance of what happened in Dachau and around Germany to ensure it never happens again.
The Pursuit of Hygge 
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