Massachusetts General Hospital

Biography

Associate Professor of Neurology,
Harvard Medical School

Associate in Neurology,
Massachusetts General Hospital

Assistant in Pathology (Neuropathology),
Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Oaklander is Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Assistant in Pathology (Neuropathology) at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She received a B.S. in Neuroscience from Cornell University and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After neurology residency at UMDNJ, she undertook postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins and joined their Neurosurgery faculty until moving to MGH, where she attends for the neurology service and directs the neurodiagnostic skin-biopsy service. Dr. Oaklander directs an NIH, DoD, and foundation-funded laboratory that studies causes of chronic pain and itch.She is known for discoveries on post herpetic neuralgia and pruritis. Her group was among the first to identify nerve injuries in patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome type I. Small-fiber polyneuropathies are another interest. She has more than 75 publications and serves on the editorial board of the journal PAIN. She is a member of the American Neurological Association and a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. She serves on advisory and review panels for the NIH, the VA, and the Institute of Medicine

Not Your Typical Rash: Why Shingles Can’t Be Taken Lightly

Anne Louise Oaklander, MD, PhD, associate professor of Neurology, says shingles and post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN), a serious neurological complication in which pain lingers in an area of previous shingles long after the rash heals, cannot be taken lightly. PHN can last for months or years and is a source of severe and disabling pain, particularly for older patients.

Nerve damage may underlie widespread, unexplained chronic pain in children

Study finds that most of a group of young patients seen at Mass General for chronic, unexplained pain had test results indicating small-fiber polyneuropathy, a condition not previously reported in children.