The Psychopharmacology Department at Maastricht University began in 1982 as the Institute for Human Psychopharmacology (IHP) led by Jim O'Hanlon, an American living in Maastricht, Netherlands. At that time, we were entirely focused on drugs and driving studies, one of our first on-road studies published was a landmark in the field and published in Science in 1982.

In 1989, Jan Ramaekers joined IHP and later began working simultaneously at the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience at Maastricht University in 1995. Shortly after, Ramaekers began working full-time at the IHP in 1997, around the same time the institute's founder, Jim O'Hanlon, moved back to California.

In 2006, Maastricht University created the Neuropsychology and Psychopharmacology department and absorbed the Institute for Human Psychopharmacology. Around this time, Ramaekers became the head of the Psychopharmacology Department and accepted his first two PhD students, Kim Kuypers and Eef Theunissen.

Since then, the Psychopharmacology at Maastricht University has grown into a globally-recognized department for psychedelic and drug research with hundreds of research papers published in scientific journals.