Our Movement Disorders Services

The Division of Movement Disorders offers comprehensive treatment for patients with:

• Parkinson disease
• Multiple system atrophy
• Progressive supranuclear palsy
• Cortical basal ganglionic degeneration
• Dementia with Lewy bodies
• Restless leg syndrome
• Tardive dyskinesia
• Hemifacial spasm
• Ataxia
• Tremor
• Myoclonus
• Dystonia, including focal dystonia such as blepharospasm, cervical dystonia, Meige syndrome, and generalized dystonia
• Tourette syndrome and other tic disorders
• Wilson disease

Specialty Clinics

The Movement Disorders Division houses several specialty clinics dedicated to comprehensive care of complex disorders. These include:

• Neuromodulation clinic: Offers deep brain stimulation and MRI-guided focused ultrasound ablation (FUSA) to patients with tremor, Parkinson disease, dystonia, and other movement disorders. This clinic is led by Dr. Michael Hayes and partners with our Neurosurgery department, Mapping and Engineering Neural Dynamics (MEND) Laboratory led by Dr. John Rolston, and the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics, led by Dr. Michael Fox.
• PAMSA (Parkinson’s + Ataxia + Multiple System Atrophy) Clinic: Founded in 2017 by Vikram (Vik) Khurana, MD, the PAMSA clinic is now co-led by Dr. Khurana and Barbara (Kelly) Changizi, MD, clinical director of the Movement Disorders Division. The clinic and center focus on the clinical management and cutting-edge development of treatments for patients diagnosed with parkinsonian syndromes—such as Parkinson’s disease progressive supranuclear palsy and Lewy body dementia—ataxia, and multiple system atrophy (MSA). In the clinic, Widad Abou-Chaar, MD, focuses on ataxia and neurogenetics cases. The clinic has been designated a national center of excellence for MSA and is a major regional, national, and international referral center. The clinic works closely with basic and translational neuroscientists within the Khurana Lab, Harvard Biomarkers Study and MyTrial programs.
• Neurogenetics Clinic: Our Movement Genetics Clinic evaluates patients with early onset of a degenerative movement disorder or and those with a positive family history. This clinic runs on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month with patients seen by Dr. Widad Abou-Chaar, Dr. Claudio Melo de Gusmao, and genetic counselor Ms. Rebecca Yeh. Critical medical informatics support to the clinic is provided by Dr. Inma Barrasa. Dr. Vikram (Vik) Khurana provides consultation and direction. In the movement genetics appointment, our clinicians will determine the need for additional genetic testing as clinically indicated. Patients who do not receive a diagnosis through routine clinical genetics investigations are advanced to a research protocol. Referrals are made through the main Movement Disorders clinic 617-732-7432), with attention to clinic coordinator Ms. Kristian De Pass-Grant.