Neuroethics is a new field concerned with the wide array of ethical, legal and social issues raised by neuroscience.  The field has grown rapidly in the last 5 years, as measured by the number of new conferences, journal articles, books and journals devoted to neuroethics.  Advances in neuroscience are also creating a whole new set of ethical issues related specifically to the clinical neurosciences. Practitioners in neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry and their pediatric subspecialties, as well as neurorehabilitation, clinical neuropsychology, clinical bioethics, and the myriad other clinical specialties including nursing, social work and geriatrics grapple with issues of mind and brain. Clinicians schooled in traditional bioethical issues of medical practice will find that a host of special issues arise when treating the brain, especially as our understanding of the neural underpinnings of cognitive and affective systems advances.

Our goal is to bring together a set of clinically important neuroethical topics, whose pragmatic relevance to the clinician is matched by their intellectual fascination to anyone interested in mind-brain relations.  The conference will be organized into five sections on different sets of issues. A section on brain imaging will provide participants with an overview of this fast-developing technology and its implications for clinical neurosciences, medicolegal issues and the controversial use of brain imaging for diagnosis of neuropsychiatric illness.  A section on psychopharmacology will update participants on selected developments in psychopharmacology and the growing trend toward neuropsychiatric medication for enhancement by healthy individuals.  The ethical terrain here includes the role of clinicians in enabling these practices and the role of the drug industry in encouraging them. A section on devices will introduce participants to noninvasive and invasive techniques for localized alteration of brain function, including transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcranial direct current stimulation and deep brain stimulation. The ethical issues that are raised by these fast-developing new methods will be explored. A section on competence will review the science and ethics of autonomy and competence in the healthy brain and the ways in which neurological and psychiatric disease, including drug abuse, undermine these abilities, and will explore the consequences for patients, their families and society. This section will also include guidelines for assessing competence.  Finally, a section on medicolegal issues will focus on the ways in which advances in neuroscience are impacting the criminal justice system and the practice of law more generally. Participants will learn about their own role when brain-related legal issues arise with their patients or when asked to testify on neuroscience relevant to specific cases.

This conference has been designed for: psychiatrists, psychologists, neurologists, neuroscientists, mental health counselors, psychiatric nurses, social workers, physiatrists, clinical bioethicists, primary care physicians, addiction medicine specialists, forensic psychiatrists, certified addiction counselors and other professionals interested in clinical neurobioethics

Paul Appelbaum, MD, Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine & Law, Director, Division of Law, Ethics, and Psychiatry, Dept. of Psychiatry, Columbia University
James Blair, PhD, Chief, Unit on Affective Cognitive Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health
Arthur Caplan, PhD, Chair, Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania
Anjan Chatterjee, MD, Conference Director and Professor of Neurology University of Pennsylvania
John Detre, MD, Associate Professor of Neurology and Radiology, University of Pennsylvania
Martha J. Farah, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Director, Center for Neuroscience & Society, University of Pennsylvania
Joseph Fins, MD, Chief, Division of Medical Ethics and Professor of Medicine, Professor of Public Health and Professor of Medicine in Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College
Daniel C. Marson, JD, PhD, Professor of Neurology and Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Helen Mayberg, MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology, Emory University
A. Thomas McLellan, Deputy Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy
Jonathan Moreno, PhD, David and Lyn Silfen University Professor and Professor of Biomedical Ethics and History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania
Stephen J. Morse, JD, PhD, Ferdinand Wakeman Hubbell Professor of Law & Professor of Psychology and Law in Psychiatry , University of Pennsylvania
Charles P. O’Brien, MD, PhD, Kenneth Appel Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania
Alan Schatzberg, MD, Chair of Psychiatry & Behavior Sciences, Stanford University, President of American Psychiatric Association
Michael Thase, MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Chief, Division of Mood and Anxiety Disorders Treatment and Research Program, University of Pennsylvania
Daniel R. Weinberger, MD, Senior Scientist, National Institutes of Health.

Physicians: The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine designates this educational activity for a maximum of 14 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits^TM.  Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. Risk management designation will also be available for portions of this program.

Psychologists: : The Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania designates this educational activity for a maximum of 14 continuing education credits.

To register, click here.

For more information, contact:
Conference Coordinator
University of Pensylvania School of Medicine
Office of Continuing Medical Education
333 Blockley Hall, 423 Guardian Drive
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Tel: 215-898-8005 or 215-898-9800
Fax: 215-898-1888
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