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Body image and eating disorders, substance abuse and chronic mental illness | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Project Description Ongoing Research Interests Eating Disorders & Obesity: One main interest is in determining why ethnic minority women prematurely drop out of weight management treatment, and how to address this dilemma. We have learned that two factors in particular lead to early termination: extremely poor body image and “familism” (family comes first). We are currently running two new studies to follow up on this discovery, one of which is looking at the factors associated with poor body image in overweight individuals. In addition, we are finishing a study that examines various means for making exercise more enjoyable for overweight women. We also are exploring the use of standard eating disorder measures (EAT, BULIT-R, EDI) in ethnic minority populations, as well as examining whether these measures (which were developed many years ago in some cases) are still valid with Anglo populations today. Through a collaboration with the Mind Research Network I am completing a study that is examining the relationship between neural correlates of craving and behavioral tasks in obese individuals. My other eating disorder interests overlap with my interest in alcoholism. Alcoholism: One main interest is in testing a cognitive-behavioral program, the Community Reinforcement Approach (CRA), as a treatment for homeless substance abusing individuals. Presently this involves expanding CRA so that it also addresses salient issues for homeless women, such as trauma and poor body image. Current interest is also focused on a variant of CRA called Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT). This empirically supported program is designed to work through family members and friends of treatment-refusing substance abusers in order to get them to enter treatment. Finally, I am interested in the “science to practice” movement. I am testing new ways to teach therapists how to best learn and adopt (into practice) CRA and CRAFT. Eligibility Graduate Research Lab | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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