Bruce L. Kagan is a psychiatrist and neurophysiologist who joined the UCLA faculty in 1986. He leads an outpatient PTSD clinic for the Veterans Administration, is a staff psychiatrist with the Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and medical director of UCLA Operation Mend’s intensive treatment program for post-9/11 veterans.
He became a full professor in 1998 and served as Director of the Psychiatry Research Residency Track from 1994-2004. He has chaired the Medical Institutional Review Board for Neuropsychiatry since 2004.
He is currently Chief of Staff of the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital.
Dr. Kagan earned his BA cum laude in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University. He received the MD and Ph.D. (physiology) degrees from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
His laboratory research centers on channel forming toxins. He is currently studying channels formed by amyloid peptides in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease to elucidate the pathogenesis of these illnesses. He is also screening chemical libraries for channel blockers that could be used as therapeutic agents.
Dr. Kagan is available to comment on PTSD in military veterans, triggers and how to get help.