After completing her psychiatric training in Hacettepe University, Turkey, Dr. Atakan moved to the UK with a research scholarship, where she obtained her membership degree from the Royal College of Psychiatrists. From 1990 until 2003, she worked as a psychiatric intensive care Consultant and from 2003 until 2007 was the Lead Consultant at the National Psychosis Unit at the Maudsley Hospital, London. She works as a part-time clinician and an Honorary Senior Lecturer and a Senior Researcher at The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences, King’s College London, where she has been studying the effects of cannabis compounds on behaviour and brain regions since 2000, as well as researching in the development of an intervention model to treat those with psychosis who continue to use substances. She has written numerous articles on the effects of cannabis compounds in peer reviewed, high impact journals and makes frequent presentations on psychoses and cannabis related topics.