Candidate: I am a Research Assistant Professor with the Eating Disorders Program in the Department of Psychiatry at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I have training in developmental psychopathology and eating disorders. I am seeking training in childhood deregulated eating, psychiatric genetics, longitudinal data analysis, and proteome methodology. Career Goals: My ultimate goal is to define prodromal eating disorders-early signs and symptoms that emerge before the onset of eating disorders-and develop a prognostic algorithm of eating disorder risk in children. Translational science to detect prodromal eating disorders could have the potential to prevent later eating disorders by altering developmental trajectories through early intervention. Career Development: I plan to build my skills and expertise in four areas: 1. Dysregulated eating in childhood;2. Psychiatric genetics including the development of a polygenic risk index;3. Longitudinal data analyses including latent trajectory modeling;and 4. Prodrome theory, methodology, and collaborative research. Research Project: The proposed project leverages existing resources by using previously collected data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Study (MoBa), a longitudinal prospective birth cohort study and biobank of ~110,000 Norwegian children and their mothers. First, I will map the developmental trajectories of restrictive eating in children from 18 months t 8 years of age and test models of pathways to 8-year-old's restrictive eating (e.g. food avoidance and emotional underrating eating less when angry or anxious). Second, I will map the developmental trajectories of binge eating in children from 36 months to 8 years of age and test models of pathways to 8-year-old's binge eating (e.g. eating large amount of food in a short period of time and experiencing loss of control over eating having the impression that one could not stop eating). Third, I will examine the impact of the addition of an anorexia nervosa polygenic risk index to inform trajectory and pathway models of children's restrictive eating in the children of mothers with and without anorexia nervosa. In future independent applications (R01s), these results will inform multi-method direct observations of the children at risk for eating disorders in MoBa as they age into adolescence, the period of greatest risk for eating disorder onset. Environment: The research and training will take place in the Department of Psychiatry at UNC Chapel Hill with additional training in the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Mentorship: The mentorship team includes lead mentor, Dr. Cynthia Bulik, a psychologist, and internationally recognized expert in eating disorder research and treatment and co-mentor, Dr. Patrick Sullivan, a psychiatrist and leading expert in psychiatric genetics. Dr. Eliana Perrin, consultant, is a pediatrician with expertise in deregulated eating in middle childhood. Dr. Kari North, consultant, is a genetic epidemiologist and will provide expertise in integrating genetics and longitudinal data analysis and methods. Dr. Ted Reichborn-Kjennerud, consultant, is a psychiatrist and expert in the MoBa dataset and psychiatric genetic epidemiology. Dr. Robert Hamer, a consultant, is a biostatistician and expert in longitudinal modeling. Dr. Diana Perkins, consultant, is a psychiatrist and co-principal investigator of genomics component of the North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study for schizophrenia.

Public Health Relevance

Eating disorders represent a serious public health concern. Approximately 0.5 percent of women in the United States will have anorexia nervosa, 1 percent to 2 percent will have bulimia nervosa and 3.5 percent will have binge eating disorder over their lifetime.1 Eating disorders carry unacceptably high personal, familial, and societal costs.2-6 Detecting the earliest warning signs in middle childhood before puberty and eating disorder onset poses our greatest opportunity to avert the development of eating disorders. The proposed research will examine how deregulated eating develops in childhood and will ultimately assist in the early detection and prevention of eating disorders.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Scientist Development Award - Research & Training (K01)
Project #
5K01MH100435-02
Application #
8706973
Study Section
Psychosocial Development, Risk and Prevention Study Section (PDRP)
Program Officer
Zehr, Julia L
Project Start
2013-08-01
Project End
2016-07-31
Budget Start
2014-08-01
Budget End
2015-07-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
City
Chapel Hill
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27599
Claydon, Elizabeth A; Zullig, Keith J; Lilly, Christa L et al. (2018) An exploratory study on the intergenerational transmission of obesity and dieting proneness. Eat Weight Disord :
Watson, Hunna J; McLagan, Nicole; Zerwas, Stephanie C et al. (2018) Cost-Effectiveness of Internet-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for Bulimia Nervosa: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial. J Clin Psychiatry 79:
Zerwas, Stephanie C; Watson, Hunna J; Hofmeier, Sara M et al. (2017) CBT4BN: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Online Chat and Face-to-Face Group Therapy for Bulimia Nervosa. Psychother Psychosom 86:47-53
Levinson, Cheri A; Brosof, Leigh C; Vanzhula, Irina A et al. (2017) Perfectionism Group Treatment for Eating Disorders in an Inpatient, Partial Hospitalization, and Outpatient Setting. Eur Eat Disord Rev 25:579-585
Kleiman, Susan C; Bulik-Sullivan, Emily C; Glenny, Elaine M et al. (2017) The Gut-Brain Axis in Healthy Females: Lack of Significant Association between Microbial Composition and Diversity with Psychiatric Measures. PLoS One 12:e0170208
Duncan, Laramie; Yilmaz, Zeynep; Gaspar, Helena et al. (2017) Significant Locus and Metabolic Genetic Correlations Revealed in Genome-Wide Association Study of Anorexia Nervosa. Am J Psychiatry 174:850-858
Watson, Hunna J; Levine, Michele D; Zerwas, Stephanie C et al. (2017) Predictors of dropout in face-to-face and internet-based cognitive-behavioral therapy for bulimia nervosa in a randomized controlled trial. Int J Eat Disord 50:569-577
Zerwas, Stephanie; Larsen, Janne Tidselbak; Petersen, Liselotte et al. (2017) Eating Disorders, Autoimmune, and Autoinflammatory Disease. Pediatrics 140:
Levinson, Cheri A; Zerwas, Stephanie; Calebs, Benjamin et al. (2017) The core symptoms of bulimia nervosa, anxiety, and depression: A network analysis. J Abnorm Psychol 126:340-354
Watson, Hunna J; Zerwas, Stephanie; Torgersen, Leila et al. (2017) Maternal eating disorders and perinatal outcomes: A three-generation study in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. J Abnorm Psychol 126:552-564

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