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Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurology Fellowship Program

Program Description

Our fellowship is designed to train the future leaders in Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurology (BNNP). It is the only UCNS-accredited BNNP Fellowship housed within a psychiatry department west of Mississippi and provides advanced training in multidisciplinary services in the departments of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Neurosurgery. Our fellowship not only provides strong training in the treatment of memory disorders but also in the interface of Psychiatry and Neurology in a wide range of other neurological disorders such as movement disorders, epilepsy, stroke, concussion/TBI, etc.

Our fellows also receive advanced training in a variety of interventional psychiatry methods including TMS, ECT, VNS, and DBS. We work closely with our colleagues in the Neurology department, particularly those in our sister Behavioral Neurology fellowship and in the Movement Disorders fellowship. The availability of several other psychiatry and neurology fellowships, such as forensic psychiatry and headache, epilepsy, and neuroimmunology, has created additional collaborative training opportunities that can be tailored to our trainees’ interests.

Our fellowship is open to both psychiatrists and neurologists, and the schedule will be customized based on the training background and interests. Please note that Stanford Health Care does not sponsor H-1B Visas; only J-1 Visas can be sponsored for this fellowship.

More Information

For more information, please contact Romola Breckenridge, Fellowship Coordinator at romola@stanford.edu or Sepideh Bajestan, MD, PhD; Associate Neuropsychiatry Fellowship Director at bajestan@stanford.edu.


Recent Publications

Concise Guide to Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurology, 3rd Edition

edited by the leaders of our neuropsychiatry services and authored by our faculty members in an international collaboration with the original editors and authors

Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurology


Program Leadership

Neuropsychiatry Fellowship Director
Associate Neuropsychiatry Fellowship Director
Romola Breckenridge
Fellowship Coordinator

Core Faculty

Instructor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

I am an attending physician in Neuropsychiatry clinic with a specialization in Functional Neurological disorders and related psychosomatic and dissociative conditions. My therapeutic orientations include integrated psychodynamic- and mindfulness-based approaches and neuromodulation-assisted psychotherapy. I am interested in the neural basis of mindfulness, concentration, and compassion practices from Buddhist meditation, and I have more than a year of silent retreat experience in the Theravada Buddhist meditation tradition.  My lab is interested in developing novel neuromodulation technologies to augment neuroplasticity and enhance the "unlearning" of maladaptive habitual ways of relating to the to the world. I have a K08 Career Development Award to measure how attention modulates neuroplasticity induced by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, using EEG steady-state visual evoked potentials and visual attention psychophysics. I have a Brain Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Award to develop in-human applications of transcranial ultrasound stimulation in the subcortical visual system and fear regulation circuit. I have a Simons Foundation Bridge to independence Award to develop closed-loop ultrasound neuromodulation technologies to enhance behavioral flexibility in autism spectrum disorders. I work closely with mentors Anthony Norcia, Kim Butts Pauly, and Nolan Williams on these projects. 

Clinical Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Dr. Bajestan is Chief of Neuropsychiatry Services, and Associate Neuropsychiatry Fellowship Director. She is double boarded in General Psychiatry, and Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurology. Dr. Bajestan has received her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience. She spent her training during her PhD and post-doctoral course in learning the molecular biology of neurological (HTLV-1 Associated Myelopathy and Desert Hedgehog signaling pathway) and psychiatric disorders (population genetic of Schizophrenia). Dr. Bajestan was the first neuropsychiatry fellow at Stanford University and established this fellowship with Dr. John Barry. Dr. Bajestan is an active member of few committees in American Neuropsychiatric Association including Committee on Research and Career Development Award. Dr. Bajestan cares deeply about wellbeing of trainees and is a member of Wellconnet Program and offers coaching and mental health help to faculty and trainees at School of Medicine. Dr. Bajestan is a nationally known expert in Functional Neurological Disorders (FND) and in integration of neuroscience education in psychiatry training. She co-leads the FND section of Committee on Research in American Neuropsychiatric Association.

Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (General Psychiatry and Psychology - Adult) and, by courtesy, of Neurology

Dr. Barry is board certified in internal medicine, psychiatry and neurology, and neuropsychiatry and behavioral neurology. Dr. Barry has an extensive experiences in a variety of aspects of medicine including being an Emergency Medicine physician, internist and country doctor, infectious disease specialist and geriatrician and is board eligible in the last two subspecialties. He has been seeing patients at Stanford University Hospital since 1989 after graduating from the Stanford Psychiatry program. In 1992 he started focusing on neuropsychiatry and eventually started the neuropsychiatry clinic and program in the department of psychiatry. Since that time, Dr. Barry has developed an interest and specialty in the psychiatric aspects of epilepsy and has conducted research in this area. He also has interests in Huntington’s and Parkinson ’s disease, TBI, Multiple Sclerosis, etc. Dr. Barry is the consummate teacher and has been involved in the psychiatry department with teaching responsibilities since graduating from the program. Dr. Barry has won department teaching awards as well as a national teaching award from the APA. Dr. Barry is the co-director of the neuropsychiatry fellowship and co- director the individual psychotherapy clinic (IPC). Research interests have mainly focused on epilepsy but have also been involved with research on the utility of the Vagus Nerve Stimulator.

Clinical Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Dr. Choi is an interventional and forensic neuropsychiatrist on the Stanford faculty. He received his MD/PhD at UC-San Diego as part of NIH's Medical Scientist Training Program. He received his PhD degree in Neuroscience for work done at the Salk Institute in neural development. Dr. Choi’s clinical interests include neuromodulatory approaches to treat psychiatric illness, such as TMS. He is part of the interventional psychiatry group of Stanford Medicine, conducting clinical work and research to advance the power, precision, and scope of neuromodulation. As a forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Choi specializes in neurolaw, an emerging interdisciplinary field that studies the use and misuse of neuroscience-based evidence in the courtroom. His research interests include the use of functional brain imaging to discern mental states (e.g. lie detection, pain assessment), and the neural basis for moral decision making.

Clinical Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Sai Folmsbee a clinical assistant professor in the neuropsychiatry section and leads the Neuroimmunology Disorders Neuropsychiatry Clinic. His clinical and research interests include the psychiatric manifestations of immune-mediated illness. He graduated from the Medical Scientist Training Program at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, where he received his Ph.D. investigating the role of cell adhesion in immunologic and neurologic processes.  He completed his general psychiatry residency training in the Psychiatry Research Pathway at the University of Pittsburgh. Afterwards, he completed the Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurology Fellowship at Stanford University and joined the faculty in 2023. Currently, he is also the Neuropsychiatry Fellowship Course Director and Neuropsychiatry Rotation Director, as well as a faculty mentor for the Stanford Comprehensive Neurology Instructorship.

Clinical Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Dr. Kratter leads the Movement Disorders Neuropsychiatry Clinic and is the Director of Invasive Technologies in the Stanford Brain Stimulation Laboratory. His clinical interests include the neuropsychiatric aspects of movement disorders like Parkinson's and Tourette's as well as non-invasive and invasive neuromodulation approaches for movement disorders, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and neuropsychiatric diseases more broadly. Trainees rotating through his clinic will gain substantial experience evaluating and managing a variety of neuropsychiatric symptoms that present with movement disorders, will learn to evaluate treatment-resistant depression and OCD patients for possible invasive therapies, and will gain hands-on experience programming deep brain stimulation (DBS) and vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapies. Dr. Kratter’s research interests focus on improving outcomes and understanding the mechanisms of neuromodulatory treatments, in part by focusing on using both non-invasive and invasive approaches to inform the other bidirectionally. This includes both clinical and more mechanistic studies using techniques like repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and deep brain stimulation in combination with neuroimaging and electrophysiology. He is a co-investigator for such studies focusing on major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and acute suicidal ideation.

Clinical Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Dr. Lazarow is a licensed psychologist who specializes in providing clinical care for individuals and couples dealing with acute and chronic medical conditions. She received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium and completed her clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship at California Pacific Medical Center in the Health Psychology track. Dr. Lazarow is currently serving patients of the Neuropsychiatry Clinic at Stanford University's School of Medicine, practicing in a psychodynamic modality and often integrating mindfulness. In addition to providing individual and couples therapy, Dr. Lazarow has created Support and Mindfulness Groups specifically designed for individuals dealing with neurological conditions. Dr. Lazarow contributes to and has a great passion for supervision and mentorship of psychology and psychiatry fellows and residents.

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (General Psychiatry and Psychology)

Dr. Tucciarone received his bachelors’ degree in biology and philosophy from Union College. He spent three years as a Post-Baccalaureate IRTA fellow at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke investigating and developing MRI reportable contrast agents to map neuronal connectivity. Following this he entered the Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD) at SUNY Stony Brook University. There he completed a doctoral dissertation in neuroscience under the mentorship Dr. Josh Huang at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. His thesis work employed mouse genetic dissections of excitatory and inhibitory cortical circuits with a focus on the circuitry of chandelier inhibitory interneurons in prefrontal cortex. He trained in psychiatry as a resident physician in Stanford Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences’ research residency track. His research interests include uncovering circuit mechanisms of psychiatric illness such as drug addiction and mood disorders with hopeful applications to novel therapeutics.

Clinical Professor, Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Dr. Sha is the Associate Vice Chair of Clinical Research, Co-Director of the Huntington’s Disease Center of Excellence and Ataxia Clinic, Co-Director of the Lewy Body Disease Association Research Center of Excellence, Clinical Core Co-Leader of the Stanford Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, and Director of the Behavioral Neurology Fellowship in Neurology Department. Her clinical and research work is devoted to caring for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. She also served on the California Governor’s Alzheimer’s Prevention and Preparedness Task Force Chaired by Maria Shriver in 2020. Dr. Sha received a Master’s degree in Physiology and an MD from Georgetown University, followed by Neurology training at UCLA and Stanford University. She completed a clinical and research fellowship in Behavioral Neurology at UCSF, where she focused on identifying biomarkers for genetic forms of frontotemporal dementia.

Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Major Laboratories & Clinical Translational Neurosciences Incubator) and, by courtesy, of Radiology (Neuroimaging and Neurointervention)

Dr. Williams is Director of the Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab. He is triple board-certified in general neurology, general psychiatry, as well as behavioral neurology & neuropsychiatry and has a broad background in clinical neuroscience. In addition, he has specific training and clinical expertise in the development of brain stimulation methodologies under Mark George, MD. Themes of his work include (a) examining the use of spaced learning theory in the application of neurostimulation techniques, (b) development and mechanistic understanding of rapid-acting antidepressants, and (c) identifying objective biomarkers that predict neuromodulation responses in treatment-resistant neuropsychiatric conditions. Results from his studies have gained widespread attention in journals such as Science and New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch as well as in the popular press and have been featured in various news sources including Time, Smithsonian, and Newsweek.


Affiliated Faculty Members

Neuropsychology

Penelope Zeifert, PhD
Neuropsychologist
Chief of the Neuropsychology Service

Lauren Drag, PhD, ABPP
Neuropsychologist

Stanford Comprehensive Epilepsy Program

Robert Fisher, MD, PhD
Maslah Saul MD Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Director of Stanford Comprehensive Epilepsy Program

Kevin Graber, MD
Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Director of Outpatient Epilepsy Clinic

Kimford J. Meador, MD
Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Director of the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit

Josef Parvizi, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Director of Stanford Program for Intractable Epilepsy

Scheherazade Le, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Neurology & Neurological Sciences

The Stanford Center for Memory Disorders

Frank M. Longo, MD, PhD
George E. and Lucy Becker Professor in Medicine
Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Sharon Sha, MD, MS
Clinical Assistant Professor
Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Michael Greicius, MD, MPH
Medical Director, Stanford Center for Memory Disorders
Associate Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Victor W. Henderson, MD, MS
Professor of Health Research and Policy
Professor of Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Huntingnton’s Disease Clinic

Sharon Sha, MD, MS
Clinical Assistant Professor
Neurology & Neurological Sciences

The Stanford Movement Disorders Center

Kathleen Poston, MD, MS
Assistant Professor Of Neurology
and, By Courtesy, of Neurosurgery

Autonomic Disorders

Safwan Jaradeh, MD
Professor of Neurology
and, By Courtesy, of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Srikanth Muppidi, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Neuromuscular Disorders

Sarada Sakamuri, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Safwan Jaradeh, MD
Professor of Neurology
and, By Courtesy, of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Srikanth Muppidi, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology

Les Dorfman, MD
Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Emeritus

May Han, MD
Assistant Professor of Neurology

Headache Clinic

Robert Cowan, MD, FAAN
Clinical Professor
Neurology & Neurological Sciences
and, By Courtesy of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine

Nada Hindiyeh, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Neurology & Neurological Sciences

Stroke/Neurocritical Care

Maarten Lansberg, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurology

Neil Schwartz, MD, PhD
Clinical Associate Professor
Neurology & Neurological Sciences
NeurosurgeryProgram Director for the Stanford Neurology Residency Program

Concussion and Traumatic Brain Injury

Jamshid Ghajar, MD, PhD, FACS
Clinical Professor
Neurosurgery

Viet Nguyen, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Neurology & Neurological Sciences


Current Fellows

Julio Francisco Quezada, MD

Doctor Quezada was born and raised in Guatemala. He completed medical school at Universidad Francisco Marroquin. After medical school, he worked for three years as a field doctor for a sugar mill where he cared for the sugar cane workers as well as their families. After that he completed residency a combined child neurology program at children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, and during this time he obtained a certificate in pediatric bioethics. After graduation, he held a position as faculty in the child neurology department of children's Mercy Hospital and was part of the Ethics Committee. As faculty, he was the director of the functional neurological disorders clinic and was part of the Tourette syndrome center of excellence faculty. He was trained in hypnosis with the national pediatric diagnosis training institute and used this knowledge to help his patients with neurobehavioral conditions. During his time as faculty he was involved in education of residents and medical students both at the outpatient and inpatient settings. Doctor Quezada decided to return to fellowship to further his education and understanding of the psychiatric dimensions of neurological conditions.

Corey Saperia, MD

Dr. Saperia is one of this year’s Neuropsychiatry Fellows. Prior to and during medical school at Tel Aviv University in Israel, he was involved in research on autoinflammatory disease and tumor immunology. He completed his residency in psychiatry at New York Medical College-Westchester Medical Center where he researched immunologic aspects of neuropsychiatric symptoms. His clinical and research interests include psycho-immunology, psycho-oncology and palliative medicine, and dementia risk reduction.    


Stipends and Benefits

Stipends 2023-24

Effective: September 2023

Year Annual Per Month
PGY I $77,729.60 $6,477.34
PGY II $81,660.80 $6,804.94
PGY III $87,838.40 $7,319.73
PGY IV $92,830.40 $7,735.72
PGY V $98,654.40 $8,221.04
PGY VI $103,001.60 $8,583.30
PGY VII $108,784.00 $9,065.16
PGY VIII $113,734.40 $9,477.68


For more information, please visit the GME Office site.

Benefits

Annual educational allowance $2,000*

Paid in November providing, all required HealthStream and EPIC/LINKS modules are completed by house staff's assigned deadline

Cell phone allowance $1,000*

Automatically added to paycheck in July

Food allowance $10 per day (shifts of 12 hours or longer for clinical rotations only at SHC & LPCH)*

Payments made on last paycheck of each month

Meal money is taxable income

Housing stipend $7,200 per year (paid as $600 monthly)*+

Automatically paid on 1st paycheck of each month

Medical, dental, vision, and long-term disability insurance provided

Eligible to participate on house staff's hire date

Moving allowance (new hires only) $3,000*

Automatically added to a paycheck in August

1% annual bonus based on completion of a Quality Improvement Project*

Automatically paid at the end of each academic year in June

Cost of initial CA MD license and renewals

Paid upon reimbursement submission for academic year expense occurrence

Cost of initial DEA and renewals

Paid upon reimbursement submission for academic yearexpense occurrence

Cost of USMLE Part Ill for Interns

Paid upon reimbursement submission for academic year expense occurrence

* Please see House Staff Policies and Procedures for full details.
Subject to appropriate taxes 


Team Pictures

More than twenty of our graduates, team members, trainees and fellowship applicants attended the Stanford Neuropsychiatry Program's Reunion/Reception at the ANPA meeting held in March 2023 in Boston. It was a delightful gathering where we had the opportunity to reconnect with our alumni and trainees.

Neuropsychiatry fellows' graduation party (Drs. Nick Trapp and Michael Martyna), 2020

Neuropsychiatry team presenting at APA 's 2019 annual meeting in San Francisco.

Stanford Neuropsychiatry family’s reunion during American Neuropsychiatric Association’s 2019 annual meeting in Chicago:

  • Faculty (Sepideh Bajestan and Juliana Lockman)
  • Graduates (Ariela Karasov, Jesse Adams, Nazlie Faridi, Sarah Tymchuk)
  • Current fellows in 2019 (Aryan Fotros, Luciana Giambarberi)
  • Upcoming fellows (Ian Kratter, Michel Medina)

Neuropsychiatry fellow ( in 2018-2019) Dr. Luciana Giambarberi and Dr. Bajestan making an educational video about the neuroscience of Functional Neurological Disorders with the help of Medicine EdTech team at Stanford University.


Videos

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