2024 Virtual Series: The Unified Brain: At the Interface of Neurology and Psychiatry
About this Series:
Neurology and Psychiatry focus on different aspects of the nervous system, but the same organ is at the heart of both disciplines: the brain. Join IPS as we explore areas of overlap between neurology and psychiatry. We’ll cover the latest findings and best treatment practices for Conversion Disorder, PANDAS, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Alzheimer’s Disease. Let’s explore the cutting edge of neuropsychiatry together!
This is a 4-part series with sessions falling on the last Thursday of the month between January and April 2024. (1/25, 2/29, 3/28, 4/25) Sessions will run from 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Session 1:
Functional neurological symptom disorder/conversion disorder: From pathophysiology to treatment approaches
January 25, 2024
Guest Speaker: Kathrin LaFaver, MD, FAAN
This talk will review epidemiology, current concepts in pathophysiology, clinical presentation and treatment approaches to functional neurological symptom disorder/conversion disorder.
Kathrin LaFaver, MD, FAAN, is a movement disorder specialist with board certifications in neurology and lifestyle medicine. After her residency at Mayo Clinic, she completed a movement disorder fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and a research fellowship at the NIH. She served as director of the movement division and Raymond Lee Lebby endowed professor for neurology at University of Louisville in Kentucky for six years. During her time in Louisville, she built a multidisciplinary clinic and treatment program for functional movement disorders that attracted referrals from throughout the US. In 2019, she joined Northwestern University in Chicago as Associate Professor of Neurology and collaborated with colleagues at Shirley Ryan Ability Lab to offer multidisciplinary treatment for functional movement disorders. During the pandemic, she changed career paths and is now working in a movement disorder focused community based practice in Saratoga Springs, NY. Dr. LaFaver is a founding member of the Functional Neurological Disorder Society. She is also a co-founder of the Women Neurologists Group (WNG) and has served on the AAN task force for gender disparity.
Session 2:
Overview of PANDAS for Psychiatrists
February 29, 2024
Guest Speakers: Pamela Campbell, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Emeritus, SIU Neuroscience Institute and Dareen D. Siri, MD, Pediatric/Adult Allergy Asthma & Immunology
This talk will review the available data on the diagnosis and management of Pediatric Autoimmune Neurodevelopmental Disorder Associated Streptococcus Infections. We will also discuss the role of psychiatry and other health professionals in managing children with PANDAS.
Pamela Campbell, MD is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Emeritus, with SIU Neuroscience Institute at SIU School of Medicine. She has been with SIU for the last 15 years and have been working with patients with PANDAS for nearly 30 years. Dr. Cambell attended St. Louis University for medical school and completed residency in Psychiatry and fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Yale University. She has also been on faculty at University of Colorado, George Washington University and University of Cincinnati over her career. She is a native of central Illinois.
Dareen D. Siri, MD, FAAAAI, FACAAI, serves Midwest Allergy Sinus Asthma, SC, with locations in Normal and Springfield, Illinois, as an accomplished and empathetic allergist. She’s passionate about both helping patients manage food allergies and also spreading awareness about food allergies and anaphylaxis. Dr. Siri received her medical degree from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine in La Jolla. After earning her medical degree, Dr. Siri moved to Providence, Rhode Island, to complete her internship and residency in general internal medicine at Brown University. She then moved to Florida, where she earned an advanced subspecialty fellowship in allergy-immunology from the University of South Florida in Tampa and John Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. Dr. Siri boasts a number of certifications. She’s a fellow of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI), and a diplomate of both the American Board of Allergy and Immunology and the American Board of Internal Medicine.
Session 3:
A New Era in Dementia Research and Care
March 28, 2024
Guest Speaker: Zoe Arvanitakis, MD, MS, EMBA, Cognitive Neurologist and Professor at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center
Recent scientific discoveries are advancing knowledge about mechanisms leading to dementia and hold promise for improved diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of this common and devastating condition in aging. Clinical care options now include the newly-approved disease modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, but optimal care continues to depend on a comprehensive and adaptive approach to management.
Zoe Arvanitakis, MD, MS, EMBA, is a board-certified neurologist and subspecialist in cognitive neurology, who provides clinical care to families affected by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. She is a Professor, Medical Director at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, academic physician leader at Rush University Medical Center, and past chair of the Geriatric Neurology Section of the American Academy of Neurology.
Dr. Arvanitakis is recognized as an award-winning educator and NIH- funded clinician-scientist. As Principal Investigator of several NIH grants, she has authored more than 100 publications, including of original research in peer-reviewed medical journals in the field of neurodegenerative, vascular, and metabolic cognitive impairment and dementia, with a focus on mechanisms underlying dementia.
Her collaborative research leverages clinical, laboratory, neuroimaging. –omics, and other data, as well as human biospecimens and postmortem brain data, from several large, epidemiologic, longitudinal, clinical-pathologic cohort studies of aging. Dr. Arvanitakis is the Specialty Chief Editor for “Aging and Risk Factors for Dementia” for the international journal Frontiers in Dementia, and serves on numerous national and international funding agency review panels such as on NIH study sections, as well as on scientific journal and meeting abstract review panels.
Session 4:
Whole Brain Recovery: Traumatic Brain Injury & Behavioral Health
April 25, 2024
Guest Speaker: Jennifer M Erickson, DO FAPA FACLP, Assistant Professor
Dr. Erickson will review the common post-TBI neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression, mania, anxiety, psychosis, irritability, and insomnia. She will discuss the common pitfalls/opportunities involved in identifying and treating behavioral health symptoms in patients after TBI.
Dr. Jennifer Erickson is a board-certified psychiatrist, consultation-liaison psychiatrist, neuropsychiatrist and brain injury medicine physician. She developed an interest in telehealth as part of several projects that included working through and around pre-pandemic rules/regulations.
Dr. Erickson is the clinical lead for the Traumatic Brain Injury Behavioral Health ECHO program and the Associate Program Director UW Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences residency program.
