New Haven Region Mini-Meeting
Sunday, April 7
1 - 3 pm
"Surfing the Mind-Body Interface"
Presenter: Jenifer Nields, MD
When a patient’s clinical presentation is complicated by chronic medical illness, how can we tease apart effects of illness from psychological/psychodynamic processes? Or are there times when we can’t when they are inextricably intertwined? Chronic illness can lead to PTSD; PTSD can predispose to illness; inflammatory cytokines create clinical depression...
Dr. Nields will present two illustrative cases, one where the medical illness created patterns of behavior and emotional reactivity that mimicked a narcissistic personality disorder; and another where a head trauma precipitated symptoms of PTSD, linked to childhood trauma. (In the latter case a psychodynamic approach was particularly helpful. ) In both cases, symptoms due to Lyme disease infection complicated the clinical picture, and brought these patients into treatment.
Group discussion will follow the interests of the attendees. We can discuss analogous cases in their own practices and/or Dr. Nields will gladly offer background on the phenomenology, biology and psychological effects of central nervous system Lyme disease infection, on the physiology of trauma, and/or the work of Stephen Porges on the polyvagal theory or Ian McEwan on PTSD and resilience.
This presentation will be a modified version of a talk for the annual Columbia Psychosomatics conference, and another for a meeting of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy.
Dr Nields is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine where she supervises residents in
long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on neuropsychiatric Lyme disease, as well as articles on psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and religion, and is a member of the national Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry. She has a particular interest in mind-body interactions, the psychological effects of chronic illness, and the factors that contribute to resilience. She is a certified neurofeedback practitioner as well as a psychotherapist in Fairfield, Connecticut.
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