Share Your Mind with Researchers: Brain Donation

If you have a neurological or psychiatric disorder, why not help researchers see what goes wrong at the source of the disease? Arrange to donate your brain after your death as a way to advance medical research. This year, I signed up to donate my own noggin to the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center, which accepts brain donations from healthy controls and from people with conditions such as: 

• Myalgic encephalomyelitis
• Bipolar disorder
• Posttraumatic stress disorder
• ALS
• MS
• Parkinson's
• Autism spectrum disorders
• Down syndrome

You can increase the likelihood of a cure being found for these conditions. Don't forget to make your other health care-related wishes known. Start with an advance directive.

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Darla Nagel is an editor and writing tutor who has an invisible chronic illness. She wants to help other patients and enlighten health care professionals about our experiences. If you’d like to be alerted whenever she writes a new post, sign up by emailing [email protected].