About Christopher Stephen, MBCHB

Dr. Stephen is board certified in neurology and is an attending neurologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham & Women’s Hospital and an Instructor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He obtained his medical degree at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, UK and completed internal medicine residency training in the UK at the University of Edinburgh and University of Nottingham programs. After attaining his Membership of the Royal College of Physicians in 2009, he pursued further training as a specialist registrar in neurology at the University of Cambridge and was an Honorary Specialist Registrar at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London, UK. He completed his internship and Neurology residency at the Beth-Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Children’s Hospital Harvard neurology program followed by a Fellowship in Movement Disorders and Ataxia at the combined Partners Mass General Brigham Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital program with additional pediatric experience at Boston Children’s Hospital.

In the Division of Movement Disorders, Dr. Stephen treats patients with Parkinson's disease, tremor and other movement disorders, with a special interest in dystonia and ataxia. He has also been involved with the Brigham & Women’s Hospital Performing Arts Clinic since 2010, where he has been treating musicians since 2014. His research interests lie in the overlap between dystonia and ataxia and especially the spinocerebellar ataxias. He is also conducting research on neurological problems in musicians and is part of an international research collaborative on musician’s dystonia. He is a member of the clinical and research team at the Massachusetts General Hospital Collaborative Center for X-linked Dystonia Parkinsonism and a member of the MGH Center for Rare Neurological Diseases.

 

 

Departments, Centers, & Programs:

Clinical Interests:

Treats:

Locations

Mass General Neurology
55 Fruit St.
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: 855-644-6387

Medical Education

  • MBCHB, University of Aberdeen, School of Medicine
  • Fellowship, Massachusetts General Hospital

American Board Certifications

  • Neurology, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology

Accepted Insurance Plans

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Research

I am a neurologist clinician-scientist with a special interest in movement disorders, particularly rare neurogenetic movement disorders (dystonia, ataxias and their overlap), with substantial clinical and research expertise in this field. My current interest is in quantitative measures of motor physiology as potential novel motor biomarkers and to complement this with biochemical biomarker research. To this end, I was a principal investigator in a study of video oculography and other novel non-motor biomarkers in late-onset GM2 gangliosidosis (LOGG), which and am applying these techniques, as well as other quantitative measures to other conditions. I am a member of the MGH Collaborative Center for X-linked dystonia parkinsonism (XDP) and a lead investigator in an ongoing natural history study (TRACK-XDP). I am also a leading investigator in functional neurological disorders (FND) and a key member of the MGH FND Research Group, with several important personal and collaborative contributions. I am involved in several other research projects in dystonia, as well as in rare movement disorders, including the genetics of musician’s dystonia and the epidemiology of prodromal Parkinson’s disease (PD). Bringing potential treatments to patients, for which there are currently no cures is vital, and to address this, I am an investigator in pivotal clinical drug trials in the spinocerebellar ataxias and LOGG, as well as in rare and idiopathic causes of parkinsonism.

Publications

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