{{short description|American pharmacologist}}
{{Use American English|date=November 2017}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2017}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix = | name = Deborah Carmen Mash | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = 1952 <!-- {{birth date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | birth_place = | occupation = Professor | known_for = Ibogaine research | boards = <!--board or similar positions extraneous to main occupation--> | awards = <!--notable national level awards only--> | website = http://uhealthsystem.com/researchers/profile/2675 | education = | alma_mater = Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami | influences = {{unbulleted list|Karen Berkley|Marsel Mesulam<ref name="HWHF">{{cite interview |last=Mash |first=Deborah |title=Interesting People: Dr. Deborah Mash |url=http://www.hwhfoundation.org/people/dr-deborah-mash/ |publisher=The Herbert W. Hoover Foundation |access-date=2017-11-23}}</ref>}} | discipline = {{hlist|Neurology|Pharmacology}} | sub_discipline = molecular and cellular pharmacology | workplaces = Miller School of Medicine | doctoral_students = <!--only those with WP articles--> | notable_students = <!--only those with WP articles--> | main_interests = {{hlist|neurochemistry|genetics|aging|drug development}} }}
'''Deborah Carmen Mash''' is an American professor of neurology and of molecular and cellular pharmacology at the Miller School of Medicine and director of the Brain Endowment Bank at the University of Miami.<ref name="UMHS">{{cite web |url=http://uhealthsystem.com/researchers/profile/2675 |title=Deborah Mash |website=uhealthsystem.com |publisher=University of Miami Health System |access-date=2017-11-23}}</ref><ref name="HWHF"/> She is also the Chief Executive Officer and founder of DemeRx.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Price|first=Stephanie|date=2020-06-12|title=Could ibogaine offer a revolutionary long-term solution to addiction?|url=https://www.healtheuropa.eu/could-ibogaine-offer-a-revolutionary-long-term-solution-to-addiction/100635/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629222227/https://www.healtheuropa.eu/could-ibogaine-offer-a-revolutionary-long-term-solution-to-addiction/100635/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=June 29, 2020|access-date=2021-03-11|website=Health Europa|language=en-GB}}</ref>
==Early research== Mash became fascinated with the human brain while she was an undergraduate student at Florida State University.<ref name="HWHF"/> After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree there, she completed a Ph.D. program at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami, and did a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School's Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.<ref name="UMHS"/>
In 1986, she joined the faculty of her ''alma mater'', the University of Miami.<ref name="UMHS"/><ref name="Let-Them-Talk">{{cite interview |url=http://pdr.autono.net/mash.htm |title=Uncovering Ibogaine: The Deborah Mash Interview |interviewer=Paul De Rienzo |work=Let Them Talk |location=New York |date=July 1996 |access-date=2017-11-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311012525/http://pdr.autono.net/mash.htm |archive-date=March 11, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Ibogaine== In 1994, the Food and Drug Administration of the United States granted Mash an Investigational New Drug license, to permit her to research the addiction-stopping capabilities of ibogaine (an oneirogen that occurs in some plants).<ref name="MAPS">{{cite journal |title=Ibogaine: Treatment Outcomes and Observations |volume=13 |issue=2 |page=16 |date=2003 |publisher=Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies |url=http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v13n2/v13n2_16-21.pdf |access-date=2017-11-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Practical Skills and Clinical Management of Alcoholism and Drug Addiction |last=Obembe |first=Samuel B. |year=2012 |publisher=Elsevier |page=90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VP-vKwAUJ_QC&pg=PA90 |isbn=978-0-12-398518-7 |access-date=2017-11-23}}</ref> A lack of funding and other barriers prevented the research from proceeding.<ref name="MAPS"/><ref>{{cite interview |last=Mash |first=Deborah |interviewer=Jan Irvin |title=Clean, Ibogaine Clean |url=https://www.gnosticmedia.com/dr-deborah-mash-interview-clean-ibogaine-clean-076/ |publisher=Gnostic Media |date=May 3, 2010 |work=The Gnostic Media Podcast}}</ref> Mash and her colleagues had previously discovered that ibogaine is a prodrug that metabolizes into a psychoactive called 12-hydroxyibogamine (or, noribogaine).<ref name="Let-Them-Talk"/> In the late 1990s she provided some assistance to Healing Transitions Institute for Addiction, a drug detoxification clinic in Cancún where physicians oversaw patients' ibogaine treatments.<ref>{{cite book |title=Heroin: Its History, Pharmacology & Treatment |last1=Humberto |first1=Fernandez |last2=Libby |first2=Therissa A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aEXXDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT157 |isbn=978-1-59285-990-0 |access-date=2017-11-23|date=May 17, 2011 |publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref>
==TASER International== {{see|Excited delirium}} On eight occasions between 2005 and 2009, she served as an expert witness for the defense in wrongful death claims filed against electroshock weapon manufacturer TASER International. Mash was paid by the company to testify on its behalf, prompting some criticism of a conflict of interest.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-taser-experts/ |title=How Taser inserts itself into investigations involving its own weapons |last1=Szep |first1=Jason |last2=Reid |first2=Tim |last3=Eisler |first3=Peter |date=August 24, 2017 |website=Reuters Investigates |publisher=Reuters |access-date=2017-11-23}}</ref> The company's official position was that the cause of death in Taser fatalities was excited delirium.<ref name="Miletich-Lindstrom">{{cite book |title=An Introduction to the Work of a Medical Examiner: From Death Scene to Autopsy Suite |last1=Miletich |first1=John J. |last2=Lindstrom |first2=Tia Laura |page=32 |publisher=Praeger |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_l_9peGFRz0C&pg=PA32 |access-date=2017-11-23|isbn=9780275995089 |year=2010 }}</ref> Excited delirium, a syndrome not recognized by many medical associations including World Health Organization, American Psychiatric Association, and American Medical Association is not included in the International Classification of Diseases or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.<ref>{{cite report |title=Position Statement on Concerns About Use of the Term "Excited Delirium" and Appropriate Medical Management in Out-of-Hospital Contexts. |publisher=American Psychiatric Association. |url=https://www.psychiatry.org/File%20Library/About-APA/Organization-Documents-Policies/Policies/Position-Use-of-Term-Excited-Delirium.pdf |access-date=2021-12-28|date=November 2020}}</ref><ref name="39RAN">{{cite book| vauthors = Vilke GM, Payne-James JJ |title=Current Practice in Forensic Medicine |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd |isbn=9781118456026 |pages=97–117 |doi=10.1002/9781118456026.ch6 |year=2016}}</ref> Mash performed post-mortem examinations of the brains of people who were allegedly victims of excited delirium, and reported that most of them showed signs of drug abuse—most frequently cocaine or amphetamine.<ref name="Miletich-Lindstrom"/>
== References == {{reflist}}
== Further reading == * {{cite book |title=The Ibogaine Story: Report on the Staten Island Project |chapter=Deborah Mash's Brain |chapter-url=http://ibogaine.mindvox.com/articles/ibogaine-story-staten-island-project/deborah-mashs-brain/ |last1=De Rienzo |first1=Paul |last2=Beal |first2=Dana |display-authors=etal |year=1997 |publisher=Autonomedia |oclc=36910760 |isbn=978-1-57027-029-1 |access-date=2017-11-23 |via=MindVox}}
== External links == * {{Official website}} * {{IMDb name}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mash, Deborah}} Category:Living people Category:American neurologists Category:American women neurologists Category:American women neuroscientists Category:American neuroscientists Category:Florida State University alumni Category:Harvard Medical School people Category:Ibogaine activists Category:American pharmacologists Category:American women pharmacologists Category:Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine alumni Category:University of Miami faculty Category:Place of birth missing (living people) Category:1952 births Category:American women academics Category:21st-century American women scientists Category:21st-century American scientists