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Brain Research and Interventional Neurotherapeutics
(BRAIN) Program

BRAIN Programs

The Brain Research and Interventional Neurotherapeutics (BRAIN) Program at Butler Hospital involves a combination of research and clinical treatments within interventional psychiatry that focuses on advanced treatments for mental health disorders for individuals who do not respond to traditional therapies like medication and psychotherapy.

This subspeciality within psychiatry includes treatments such as Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), Esketamine (Spravato), neurofeedback, self-neuromodulation, and new cutting-edge modalities for major depressive disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, addiction, bipolar disorder, and other Neuropsychiatric disorders.

This unique program is integrated with scientific research to help develop personalized treatment approaches, target patient-specific symptoms, and identify potential biomarkers to predict clinical response and optimize outcomes.  

We are here to help

Butler Hospital
345 Blackstone Boulevard
Providence, RI 02906

You may click on the individual programs below to learn more information about those treatments and what steps to take to begin the screening process with our team. For general questions, please call 1 (844) 401- 0111 to Butler Hospital’s intake department.  

Our Treatment Programs

TMS Clinic-4

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

According to the American Psychiatric Association, ECT is considered the most effective treatment for major depression for people who have not found relief of their symptoms from medications or other forms of therapy. 

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esketamine

Esketamine
(Spravato)

Esketamine, marketed as Spravato, is the first FDA- approved treatment version of a drug commonly known as “ketamine” for adults struggling with major depressive disorder. It is used as a self-administered nasal spray and delivered under the supervision of trained professionals. 

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TMS Clinic-3

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a revolutionary treatment, approved by the FDA, for patients suffering from depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) who have not responded to standard medications and therapy.

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Not sure which program is right for you?

Call Our Assessment Team

Program Leadership

Linda Carpenter, MD

Clinical Provider

Linda L. Carpenter, MD is a Professor of Psychiatry in the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Chief of the Mood Disorders Program at Butler Hospital. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan and medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. She did an internship in internal medicine, psychiatry residency, and research fellowship at Yale, and then joined the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University in 1997. 

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Eric Tirrell

Mr. Eric Tirrell completed his undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Rhode Island.  He is the TMS and Esketamine clinical supervisor of Butler Hospital’s TMS Clinic and has been providing TMS treatment for neuropsychiatric disorders for over 8 years. He has extensive experience with all aspects of TMS clinical care and he is well versed in operating Neurostar, Magstim, Nexstim, MagnMore, Magventure and other investigational TMS device systems using a variety of TMS protocols and coils.

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Clinical Providers

Audrey Tyrka, MD, PhD

Dr. Audrey Tyrka is Mary E. Zucker Professor and Chair, of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior.  She received her MD and PhD in medicine and psychology through a combined program at the University of Pennsylvania in 1999. Dr. Tyrka completed psychiatry residency training at Brown and further research training in clinical neuroscience at the Mood Disorders Research Program and Laboratory for Clinical Neuroscience at Butler Hospital. 

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Benjamin Greenberg, MD, PhD

Dr. Benjamin Greenberg has a BA in psychology from Amherst College, a PhD in neurosciences from UC San Diego, and an MD from the University of Miami, with psychiatry residency at Johns Hopkins. He then led adult OCD research at NIMH, where he performed the first transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) study in that illness. At Butler Hospital and Brown since 2000, he has focused on invasive neurosurgeries including ventral capsulotomy and deep brain stimulation (DBS). 

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Alvaro Olivares, MD

Dr. Alvaro Olivares graduated from the Universidad del Norte Faculty of Medicine in Barranquilla, Colombia and completed his residency at Butler Hospital. He is a board-certified psychiatrist who serves as the unit chief in psychiatry at Butler Hospital and hosts a weekly Spanish radio program, “Mental Health with Dr. Olivares.” Dr. Olivares conducts assessments in Spanish for the program’s A4 study.  He currently serves as the chief of the Kent inpatient Unit at Butler and the Chief of the Outpatient ECT department.  

Lawrence Price, MD

Dr. Lawrence Price attended the University of Michigan, where he  received a B.S. with highest honors in psychology and high distinction in 1974, followed by an M.D. in 1978. After an internship in internal medicine at Norwalk Hospital, he completed a residency and fellowship in psychiatry at Yale University. From 1982 until 1996, Dr. Price was on the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University, where he served as Associate Professor and Director of the Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit at the Connecticut Mental Health Center. 

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Brian Tesar, MD

Dr. Brian Tesar received a B.A. with honors in Chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1987. He studied medicine and biochemistry and received his M.D. from the University of Illinois in 1992. Dr. Tesar completed a psychiatric residency program with Washington University in St. Louis in 1996. 

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Angela Wang, DO
Fatih Kokdere, MD

Dr. Fatih Kokdere received his medical degree from Yeditepe University located in his hometown Istanbul, Turkey. Following his graduation, he joined Butler Hospital’s TMS Clinic and Neuromodulation Research Facility as a postdoctoral research fellow. He completed his psychiatry residency at MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center in Iowa and returned to Butler Hospital as an attending psychiatrist in our program in addition to assessing patients in the Inpatient Assessment Center.