Dr. Kirsten Müller-Vahl, M.D., is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry, Social psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Hannover Medical School (MHH), Germany. She is a board certified adult neurologist and adult psychiatrist. Since 1995, she is the head of the Tourette syndrome outpatient department at MHH. From 1997 to 2003 she was a grant holder of the German government (Dorothea-Erxleben-Stipendium) for scientific research related to Tourette syndrome. From 2011-2016, she was the vice chair and from 2020-2023 the chair of the European Society of the study of Tourette syndrome (ESSTS). She is the current chairwoman of the German Association for Cannabinoid Medicines (ACM) and the International Alliance for Cannabinoid Medicines (IACM).

Her scientific work related to Tourette syndrome includes several clinical studies as well as controlled trials on the effects of all kinds of treatment on tics. For example, she was PI in the BMBF-funded RCT ONLINE-TICS (Randomized observer blind clinical trial to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of internet-delivered behavioral treatment for adults with tic disorders) (01KG1421). In 2015, the German Research Foundation (DFG) approved a large multi-centre randomized controlled trial for funding investigating the efficacy and safety of nabiximols in the treatment of adult patients with TS (CANNA-TICS, NCT03087201). In 2018-2019, she was PIof a phase 1b and a phase 2 study investigating efficacy and safety of the monoacylglycerollipase (MGLL) inhibitor ABX-1431 in adult patients with Tourette syndrome (NCT03058562, NCT03625453). She was also involved in several international studies funded by the EU such as TS-EUROTRAIN (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-ITN, No. 316978) and EMTICS (EUFP7-HEALTH-2011, 278367) as well as NIMH-funded studies such as TIC-GENETICS (1R01MH115958-01).

Dr. Müller-Vahl has published more than 200 scientific articles, is the author of the leading German textbooks on Tourette syndrome and cannabis-based medicine as well as of several book chapters. She is author of several guidelines on Tourette syndrome including the German guidelines as well as treatment guidelines published by ESSTS and the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). Since 2017, she is a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the Tourette Association America (TAA). In 2012, she received the Scientific Award of the German Tourette-Syndrome Association (TGD). At the 9th IACM Conference on Cannabinoids in Medicine in 2017, she received the “IACM Award 2017 for Clinical Research for her special achievements regarding the re-introduction of cannabis and cannabinoids as medicine”.