Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Alice Flaherty is a joint associate professor of  both neurology and psychiatry at HMS. Her practice is at MGH.  Her education was preparation H, in that she did an AB, MD, internship, residency, and fellowship at Harvard. In an attempt at diversity, she did a PhD at MIT, one mile away. In the MGH department of neurology, she is the director of the movement disorders fellowship, co-director of its brain stimulator unit, and has a particular interest in the overlap between mood and movement disorders. Her research focuses on brain systems that control behavioral drives, whether to walk, to communicate, or to create, and how these are influenced by interventions ranging from dopaminergic drugs to phototherapy to deep brain stimulation.

In addition to scientific papers, she is the author of The MGH Handbook of Neurology; The Midnight Disease (a book for general audiences on the biological drive to communicate), and The Luck of the Loch Ness Monster (a children’s book on the biology of picky eating). Each of her books has received national awards and had multiple translations. Two have been dramatized. She has appeared as an expert on many TV documentaries, both nationally and internationally. Her current project on the neurology of illness behaviors, was awarded a fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and was the focus of the 2008 David Rockefeller Winter Institute. She examines the mechanisms by which behavioral responses to illness, such as somatization and stoicism, are both biologically based and alterable by experience. Her interest in empathy and dispassion, which are secondary illness behaviors, made her aware of the extent to which doctors’ gestural communication is biologically based and teachable as well.

E-mail:  Alice W. Flaherty, MD, PhD

Updated 1/20/2012

Research Investigator Profile

Alice Flaherty, MD, PHD

• Associate Professor of Neurology,
  Associate Professor of Psychiatry,
  Harvard Medical School
• Associate in Neurology,
  Massachusetts General Hospital
• Director,
  Movement Disorders Fellowship Program

Awards & Recognition

Public Honors

2010
Top Doctors, US News and World Report

2009
Top Doctors, Boston Magazine

2006
87 Big Thinkers, feature, Boston Magazine

1999
Compassionate Caregiver Award, Massachusetts-wide finalist, Schwartz Center

Updated 1/20/2012

Basal ganglia fMRI in normal and Parkinsonian patients

Dr. Flaherty is the site principle investigator of a multicenter Phase II trial of gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease. The trial’s 6 month results were released in 2011, and marked the first time that gene therapy has been effective in treating human Parkinson’s disease. In sixteen subjects, a virally mediated copy of the gene for glutamic acid decarboxylase, or GAD, was surgically injected directly into their brain's subthalamic nucleus. The GAD gene boosts production of a neurotransmitter called GABA, which can decrease the overactivity typically seen in Parkinson’s patients’ subthalamic nuclei. Compared with the control subjects, who did not get the gene, the sixteen subjects improved significantly in an overall measure of disease severity. Tremor, stiffness, and incoordination typically decreased. Further follow-up measurements are currently in progress.

http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2011/03/24/gene-therapy-for-parkinsons-advances

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS1474-4422(11)70039-4/abstract

Updated 1/25/2012

Read descriptions and apply for residency, fellowship, and observership programs at http://www.massgeneral.org/neurology/education/.

Apply for temporary positions (summer interns)  through the Bulfinch Temporary Service Web site at http://www.massgeneral.org/careers/temporary.aspx. Search for all opportunities using ID# 2200484.

All applicants should register with the Mass General Careers Web site at http://www.massgeneral.org/careers/viewall.aspx. Request a list of current open positions at mghneurology@partners.org.

Selected Publications

1. Shields DC, Flaherty AW, Eskandar EN, Williams ZM. Ventral intermediate thalamic stimulation for monoclonal gammopathy-associated tremor: case report. Neurosurgery. 2011 May; 68(5):E1464-7.
2. Lewitt PA, Rezai AR, Leehey MA, Ojemann SG, Flaherty AW, Eskandar EN, Kostyk SK, Thomas K, Sarkar A, Siddiqui MS, Tatter SB, Schwalb JM, Poston KL, Henderson JM, Kurlan RM, Richard IH, Van Meter L, Sapan CV, During MJ, Kaplitt MG, Feigin A. AAV2-GAD gene therapy for advanced Parkinson's disease: a double-blind, sham-surgery controlled, randomised trial. Lancet Neurol. 2011 Apr; 10(4):309-19.
3. Flaherty AW. Brain illness and creativity: mechanisms and treatment risks. Can J Psychiatry. 2011 Mar; 56(3):132-43.
4. Ducharme S, Flaherty AW, Seiner SJ, Dougherty DD, Morales OG. Temporary interruption of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease during outpatient electroconvulsive therapy for major depression: a novel treatment strategy. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2011; 23(2):194-7.
5. Quinn DK, Flaherty AW, Herman JB, Kleinschmidt TL. Over the rainbow: a case of traumatic brain injury. Harv Rev Psychiatry. 2010; 18(1):56-66.

NCBI PubMed publications

Honors & Recognition

2009
Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List (Luck of the Loch Ness Monster)

2007
100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, New York Public Library (Luck of Loch Ness M.)

2005
William Saroyan International Writing Prize, nonfiction short list

2004
Best Books of 2004 - San Francisco Chronicle & Washington Post
“The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block and the Creative Brain”

San Francisco Chronicle, Editor’s Pick  (The Midnight Disease)

Books, Monographs, Articles, and Presentations in Other Media

2011
The Massachusetts General Hospital: Handbook of Neurology / Edition 2 - Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Alice W. Flaherty, Natalia S. Rost

2010
Uncommon Sense: Synsthesia helps the brain luxuritae in metaphor - Harvard Medical Bulletin

2009
From Bipolar Darkness, the Empathy to Be a Doctor - New York Times

2009
Special effects: What can the dramatic arts teach doctors about improving their performances? - Harvard Medical Bulletin. 2009;82(2):12-17.

2009
From Bipolar Darkness, the Empathy to Be a Doctor - New York Times

2008
Memory Splat Mat - Harvard Medical Bulletin

2007
The Luck of the Loch Ness Monster. by Alice Flaherty. Illustrated by S. Magoon; Houghton Mifflin, Boston

The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin

Presentations to Non-Medical Scholarly and General Audiences

2010
Second Opinion: Bipolar Disorder TV interview and panel- WXXI Public Broadcasting (PBS network series)

2007
My Brilliant Brain: Savant Syndromes - National Geographic Channel-UK (TV interview)

2004
The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain - The Diane Rehm Show (Radio interview)
National Public Radio, WAMU

Updated 1/20/2012

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