For Healthcare Professionals
The Catatonia Foundation Medical Advisory Board
The Catatonia Foundation’s Medical Advisory Board serves the mission of The Catatonia Foundation by providing medical expertise and guidance in the dissemination of medical information for purposes of awareness and education for medical professionals, other healthcare professionals and the public, and for research within the medical community.
The Medical Advisory Board has no governing function within The Catatonia Foundation.
The Medical Advisory Board is comprised of medical and other healthcare professionals who have expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with Catatonia through clinical practice and/or expertise gained through research, literature reviews, or otherwise. The current Medical Advisory Board Members can be accessed here.
The Medical Advisory Board is governed by policies adopted by the governing Board of Directors of The Catatonia Foundation. The policies of the Medical Advisory Board can be accessed here.


Dr. Max Fink - Honorary Member
Dr. Max Fink is a world-renowned expert in Catatonia and Electroconvulsive Therapy. He has authored or co-authored many books and over 800 articles, including two books on Catatonia and five books on Electroconvulsive Therapy. His most recent book on Catatonia, The Madness of Fear: A History of Catatonia, was published in 2018 and his most recent book on ECT, Electroconvulsive Therapy: A Guide for Professionals and Their Patients, was published in 2009. He founded the Journal of ECT in 1984.
Dr. Max Fink's contribution to Catatonia.
Dr. Scott Beach
Dr. Scott Beach is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and program director of the Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean Adult Psychiatry Residency Training Program. He is also director of the Infectious Disease Consultation Service at MGH, providing psychiatric care in the HIV clinic. His areas of clinical expertise include QT prolongation with psychiatric medications, catatonia and related syndromes, and patients who deceive providers.
Dr. Brendan T. Carroll
Dr. Brendan Carroll is a psychiatrist in Chillicothe, Ohio and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including Adena Regional Medical Center and Chillicothe Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Dr. Stanley N. Caroff
Dr. Stanley N. Caroff is Emeritus Professor at University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. He is a psychiatrist with over 48 years of experience in the medical field.
Dr. Joseph Cooper
Dr. Joseph Cooper is at University of Illinois Chicago where he holds many roles including Director of the Psychiatry Residency Training Program, Director of the Behavioral Neurology & Neuropsychiatry Fellowship, Vice Chair for Education of the Department of Psychiatry and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry.
Dr. Jorge Cuevas Esteban
Dr. Cuevas Esteban is Head of the Adult Psychiatry Service at the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital. He is also an Associate Professor at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Dr. Dirk M. Dhossche
Dr. Dirk M. Dhossche is a psychiatrist in Spokane, Washington and is affiliated with Inland Northwest Behavioral Health.
Dr. Gregory Fricchione
Dr. Gregory Fricchione is on the faculty at Harvard Medical School. He is also Associate Chief of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Director if the Division of Psychiatry and Medicine at MGH, the MGH Psychosomatic Medicine Fellowship Program, the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Behavioral Mental Health Service, and of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at MGH.
Dr. Gábor Gazdag
Dr. Gábor Gazdag is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Semmelweis University. He is also head of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychiatric Rehabilitation in Jahn Ferenc South Pest Hospital. His research interests include the history of psychiatry, diagnosis and treatment of catatonia, consultationn-liaison psychiatry and clinical use of electroconvulsive therapy.
Dr. Neera Ghaziuddin
Dr. Neera Ghaziuddin is a Professor at Michigan Medicine (University of Michigan) Department of Psychiatry. Her areas of interest include mood disorders in adolescents, psychotic disorders in adolescents, catatonia, biology of adolescent mood disorders, electroconvulsive therapy, and catatonia in typical developing and developmentally delayed adolescents.
Dr. Cassie Karlsson
Dr. Karlsson is board-certified in psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, and behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry. She is a Clinical Associate Professor at The University of Kansas Medical Center and specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with autism, intellectual disabilities, and other neurodevelopmental disorders. She has a clinical and research interest in Down Syndrome, with specific focus on regression and Catatonia.
Dr. Joan Roig Llesuy
Dr. Joan Roig Llesuy is an adult psychiatrist at NYU Langone Health. He is the Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
Dr. James Luccarelli
Dr. James Luccarelli is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and INstructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He works clinically in the Acute Psychiatric Service and electroconvulsive therapy service. Dr. Luccarelli’s research interests focus on catatonia and on the use of electroconvulsive therapy.
Dr. Daniel Maixner
Dr. Daniel Maxiner is a Clinical Professor and Director of the Electroconvulsive Therapy Program at Michigan Medicine (University of Michigan). His areas of interest include electroconvulsive therapy, inpatient psychiatry, treatment-resistant depression, maintenance ECT, vagus nerve stimulation for depression, ECT in geriatric patients, and use of ketamine for resistant depression.
Dr. William Vaughn McCall
Dr. Vaughn McCall is a psychiatrist currently on the faculty of the Medical College of Georgia, where he previously served as the Chairman and Executive Vice Dean. His areas of interest include severe mood disorders, sleep disorders, catatonia, and ECT.
Dr. Georg Northoff
Dr. George Northoff is a philosopher, neuroscientist, and psychiatrist, holding degrees in all three disciplines. He heads the Mind, Brain, and Neuroethics Research Unit at The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research (IMHR), affiliated with the University of Ottawa.
Dr. Mark A. Oldham
Dr. Mark Oldham is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center. He is co-creator of online educational resources on the use of the Bush-Francis Catatonia rating Scale
Dr. Georgios Petrides
Dr. Georgios Petrides is Associate Professor of Molecular Medicine and Psychiatry at Zucker School of Medicine at Hofsta/Northwell.
Dr. Davin Quinn
Dr. Davin Quinn is Vice Chair of Adult Clinical Services at University of New Mexico. His current academic interests include the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral manifestations of neurologic diseases and traumatic brain injury, the diagnosis and treatment of major depressive disorder in diverse populations, and the safe and effective use of neuromodulation therapies to treat psychiatric symptoms.
Dr. Jonathan Rogers
Dr. Jonathan Rogers is a Clinical Lecturer in General Adult Psychiatry at the University College London. He is interested in catatonia especially as it relates to anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis
Dr. Joshua R. Smith
Dr. Joshua Ryan Smith is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. Dr. Smith developed an outpatient clinic specializing in neuromodulatory and psychopharmacologic care for individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions complicated by cognitive impairment, language delays, as well as comorbid psychosis/catatonia.
Dr. Lee Wachtel
Dr. Lee Wachtel is the medical director and an attending child psychiatrist of the Neurobehavioral Unit at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. She also directs consultation-liaison psychiatry services for the Rehabilitative Unit. She is a professor in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Dr. Jo Ellen Wilson
Dr. Jo Ellen Wilson is a Consultation Liaison Psychiatrist and Epidemiologist at Vanderbilt Center for Cognitive Medicine with a research focus on acute (catatonia, delirium, and coma) and chronic brain dysfunction.