Steven A Rasmussen

Steven A. Rasmussen, MD, MMS is Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He has been repeatedly listed among the Best Doctors in America and is one of the most Highly Cited researchers in Psychiatry. Dr. Rasmussen has served as Medical Director at Butler Hospital from 1998-2012 and continues to be an internationally recognized expert in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Dr. Rasmussen received his MMS and MD from Brown Medical School in 1977 as a member of the second graduating class of the PLME program. He completed his psychiatry residency at Yale in 1983, followed by a two-year obligation with the National Health Services Corps in North Kingdom Vermont. He joined the Brown faculty and Butler Hospital in 1983, where he has remained throughout his distinguished career.

His primary research focuses on the course and treatment of OCD, with particular expertise in neurosurgical approaches to intractable OCD and depression, and the neurocircuitry of OCD. His recent publications demonstrate a strong emphasis on longitudinal studies of OCD symptom stability, genetic underpinnings of OCD, neural circuitry investigations using advanced neuroimaging techniques, and neurosurgical interventions including deep brain stimulation and gamma capsulotomy.

• Best Doctors in America
• Highly Cited Researcher in Psychiatry

Dr. Rasmussen currently leads multiple major research initiatives, including four R01 grants from the NIMH. His work encompasses studies of the longitudinal course of OCD, neurosurgical approaches to treatment, understanding the neurocircuitry underlying DBS effects in OCD, and a genome-wide association study of OCD. He directs the Brown Longitudinal Obsessive Compulsive Study (BLOCS), tracking 400 OCD patients over many years, and co-founded the OCD Collaborative Genetics Group which has conducted extensive genetic research on OCD.

As a leader in developing bridges between campus-based and hospital-based brain science faculty at Brown University, Dr. Rasmussen has pioneered translational research approaches that integrate clinical observation with basic neuroscience. His work on gamma capsulotomy and deep brain stimulation has provided critical insights into prefrontal cortical function in humans while offering hope to patients with otherwise untreatable OCD.