Department of Neurological Sciences

The newest members of the Teaching Academy at The Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at The University of Vermont were inducted during a ceremony and dinner held January 5, 2017 that kicked off the Snow Season Education Retreat at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center.

The University of Vermont Foundation hosted a special Investiture ceremony for an inaugural endowed position – the Robert W. Hamill, M.D. Green & Gold Professor in Neurological Sciences at the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine – on December 6 in the Hoehl Gallery in the Health Science Research Facility. UVM President Tom Sullivan and Larner College of Medicine Dean Frederick Morin, M.D., presented James Boyd, M.D., associate professor of neurological sciences, as the first Hamill Green & Gold Professor at the event.

The ALS Center at UVM Medical Center, led by Rup Tandan, M.D., F.R.C.P., professor of neurological sciences, recently received a $37,500 grant from the ALS Association of Northern New England to support patients and families struggling with Lou Gehrig’s disease, which was mentioned in Vermont Business Magazine.

A number of common conditions are mistaken for multiple sclerosis (MS), a disabling central nervous system disease, say researchers at four academic medical centers across the U.S in a study published online today in the journal Neurology.

New research provides insight into a long-observed, but little-understood connection between chronic pain and anxiety and offers a potential target for treatment. The study’s findings, published as an Article in Press in Biological Psychiatry, show that increased expression of PACAP – a peptide neurotransmitter the body releases in response to stress – is also increased in response to neuropathic pain and contributes to these symptoms.

When University of Vermont neurologist Michael Hehir, M.D., treats patients with a relatively rare neuromuscular disorder called Myasthenia Gravis, he has to weigh the benefits of the medications he prescribes against their typical side effects.

To neuroscientist Anthony Morielli, Ph.D., the study of the brain opens a window to better understand the way the world works. “The brain is the one thing in the universe that can reflect back on itself,” says Morielli, a University of Vermont associate professor of pharmacology, who was recently named director of UVM’s Neuroscience Graduate Program.

Results of the Insulin Resistance Intervention after Stroke (IRIS) trial presented February 17, 2016 at the International Stroke Conference 2016 in Los Angeles, Calif., and published in an Online First article in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggest a potential new method to prevent stroke and heart attack in high-risk patients who have already had one stroke or transient ischemic attack.

Stroke – it’s the leading cause of serious long-term disability and a leading cause of death in the U.S., so figuring out how it affects the entire body is critical to identifying treatments to reduce its negative impact.

Joseph McSherry, M.D., Ph.D., UVM associate professor of neurological sciences, authored an editorial on the effects of cannabis-derived tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).