A Conversation with Ronald Ruden ’67: Physician, Researcher, and Medical Theorist highlighting Electroceuticals as Therapeutic Agents

Over the last three decades, Ronald Ruden ’67, MD, PhD has practiced internal medicine. As a primary care physician he has cared for thousands of patients and has developed a deep appreciation for the effect the mind has on the body. In addition to patient care he has self-funded his own translational research. His research takes advances in neuroscience and attempts to apply them to disorders that arise from dysregulated brain function. His early work on this subject was explored in his first book, The Craving Brain. Here, he describes his views on how understanding the biology of addictive behavior can guide treatment. Later, using trauma as a model, Dr. Ruden sought to understand how a traumatic memory is encoded and what could be done to de-encode it. The results of this research are described in his second book When the Past is Always Present. He is founder and creator of Havening Techniques, a psychosensory therapy being used in 16 countries around the world.

Dr. Ruden began his academic career in 1971 at the age of 24 when, after earning his PhD in organic chemistry from Northwestern University, he joined Nobel laureate E.J. Corey at Harvard University. There they developed new advanced synthetic methods. Later, after several years of research at Rutgers University, he left academics and attended Mt Sinai School of Medicine from where he obtained his MD. After an internship and residency in internal medicine he took a fellowship in clinical nutrition at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. As a fellow he chaired an international conference on nutrition and cancer for which the American Cancer Society honored him. From 1983 to the present he has been a working clinician/researcher/medical theorist.