Bruce Parsons, MD, PhD
Co-founder & Clinical Lead, Get Up and Flow
Bruce Parsons, MD, PhD, is a board-certified psychiatrist and physician-scientist with extensive experience in academic medicine, clinical pharmacology, neuroscience, and the pharmaceutical industry. He received his PhD from Rockefeller University and his MD from the University of Miami, completed his psychiatry residency at Columbia University, and subsequently served for ten years as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. His academic work included leading a neuropharmacology research laboratory, conducting clinical and translational research, and teaching medical students, residents, and fellows.
Dr. Parsons subsequently spent nearly two decades at Pfizer in increasingly senior medical leadership positions spanning psychiatry, neurology, neuroscience, and pain. He led medical and cross-functional teams responsible for major medicines and therapeutic programs and contributed to clinical development, regulatory strategy, scientific communications, and product launches in the United States and internationally. His work encompassed Phase II–IV clinical research and extensive collaboration with physicians, researchers, regulatory authorities, and medical organizations throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.
Throughout his career, Dr. Parsons has maintained a strong commitment to understanding how neuroscience and clinical research can be translated into meaningful improvements in people’s everyday lives. He is the author or co-author of more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications across neuroendocrinology, neuropharmacology, psychiatry, neurology, and pain.
Dr. Parsons brings this combination of scientific rigor, clinical experience, and practical problem-solving to Get Up and Flow, where the goal is to translate an understanding of the alterations in executive functioning seen in people with ADHD into practical, individualized strategies and solutions that help them function more effectively in their daily lives. He and Brian Fischman are the co-founders of the company, and have developed a proprietary curriculum and information technology to keep people with ADHD stay motivated, focused and effective, so that they can complete their daily tasks without guilt, shame or remorse.
Selected publications
From more than 100 peer-reviewed publications:
- Parsons B, Rainbow TC, Pfaff DW, McEwen BS. Oestradiol, sexual receptivity and cytosol progestin receptors in the hypothalamus. Nature 292: 58–59, 1981.
- Rainbow TC, Parsons B, McEwen BS. Sex differences in rat brain oestrogen and progestin receptors. Nature 300: 648–649, 1982.
- McEwen BS, Davis PG, Parsons B, Pfaff DW. The brain as a target for steroid hormone action. Annual Review of Neuroscience 2: 65–112, 1979.
- Markman J, Resnick M, Greenberg S, Katz N, Yang R, Scavone J, Gregorian G, Parsons B, Knapp L. Efficacy of pregabalin in post-traumatic peripheral neuropathic pain: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial. Journal of Neurology 265: 2815–2824, 2018.
- Parsons B, Fujii K, Nozawa K, Yoshiyama T, Ortiz M, Whalen E. The efficacy of pregabalin for the treatment of neuropathic pain in Japanese subjects with moderate or severe baseline pain. Journal of Pain Research 12: 1061–1068, 2019.
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