Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Professor of Neurology

Overview

Biographical Sketch 2024

 

W. Curt LaFrance, Jr., MD, MPH, FAAN, FANPA, DFAPA, FAES, is the Director of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurology at Rhode Island Hospital (RIH) and Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at Alpert Medical School, Brown University.  He is Director of the VA Mind Brain Program, Program Director for the VA National Telemental Health Center Tele-Seizures clinic and Staff Physician at the VA Providence Health Care System. In his neuropsychiatry clinical practice, he sees referrals from around the country with neuropsychiatric disorders, including traumatic brain injury, seizure, movement, cognitive, mood, anxiety disorders, along with patients with conversion / functional / somatic symptom disorders.

Dr. LaFrance studied at Wake Forest University (BA in psychology), Medical College of Georgia (MD) and Brown University (MPH).  He came to Brown in 1995 for his internship in internal medicine and completed the combined residency in neurology and psychiatry at Brown, and he is boarded in both neurology and in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.  After residency, he completed a Clinical Research Fellowship in Combined Treatments at Brown University with an institutional NIH T-32 National Research Service Award. He is the recipient of awards, recognitions and grants, including the American Neuropsychiatric Association’s (ANPA) Career Development Award, the American Academy of Neurology’s (AAN) Dreifuss-Penry Epilepsy Award, and Marquis’ Who’s Who in the World. He has served on the Epilepsy Foundation (EF) Professional Advisory Board, chaired American Epilepsy Society (AES) and International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) Task Forces, as a steward for the AES/NINDS Epilepsy Benchmarks, and on the Governor’s Permanent Advisory Commission on Traumatic Brain Injury. He was an Advisor to the DSM 5 Workgroup on Somatoform Disorders. He served on the Council for the ANPA, and he is a founding member and on the Board of Directors of the Functional Neurological Disorder Society.

Dr. LaFrance has received grants from the EF, AES, Siravo Foundation, the VA and DoD, and an NINDS K23 Award. He directed the combined residency at Brown from 2012-2019 and has served as research advisor or mentor to psychiatry, neurology and neuropsychiatry residents and faculty and to Brown undergraduates in neurobiology and psychology. He trains clinicians around the country in Neuro-Behavioral Therapy, using distance supervision, for treatment delivery for seizures and somatoform disorders. He has given over 270 invited lectures around the country and world. His research interests focus on developing new biomarkers and treatments for neuropsychiatric aspects of epilepsy, conversion (functional) / somatoform disorders and TBI. His studies are published in peer reviewed neurology and psychiatry journals, with over 150 publications. He serves on journal editorial boards for Epilepsy and Behavior, Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, and the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. He is co-editor of the 4th edition of Nonepileptic Seizures and co-author of Taking Control of Your Seizures: Workbook and Therapist Guide.   

A goal of his work at Brown, nationally and internationally has been to bridge neurology and psychiatry clinical practice and scientific research and to dissolve arbitrary boundaries between the two fields.

Brown Affiliations

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