Psychiatric and Psychological Faculty
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Walter H. Kaye, M.D.Director, Eating Disorders Treatment and Research Program "Anorexia nervosa has the highest rate of death of any psychiatric illness. We are now beginning to understand why people develop these disorders, and we are using this information to develop more effective treatment." Dr. Walter Kaye was recruited to the UC San Diego faculty from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where he was research director of the eating disorder program, and where he received a NIMH senior scientist award. Dr. Kaye’s current research is focused on exploring the relationship between brain and behavior using brain imaging and genetics, and developing and applying new treatments for anorexia and bulimia nervosa. |
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Terry Schwartz, M.D.Clinical Director, Eating Disorders Programs Terry Schwartz is the Clinical Director of the UCSD Eating Disorders Programs. She has over 15 years of extensive experience in working with eating disorders, as well as providing Eating Disorders treatment trainings at multiple university and county facilities. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCSD Medical School. From 1997 through 2005, she served as Associate Medical Director at UCSD Outpatient Psychiatric Services, and Medical Director for the UCSD Co-Occurring Disorders Program. She continues to be actively involved in the training of psychiatry residents, psychology interns, and other trainees. From 1999-2004, she served as chairman of the San Diego County Mental Health “Psychopharmacology of Co-Occurring Disorders” Committee. She received her MD from the University of California, San Diego, in 1993, and completed her residency in psychiatry at UCSD. She has been named by San Diego Magazine (voted by peers) as one of the Top Doctors in San Diego. |
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Mary Ellen Trunko, M.D.Medical Director, Adult Programs Eating Disorders Treatment and Research Program Dr. Mary Ellen Trunko has worked with the UCSD Center for Eating Disorders Treatment and
Research since its inception, and has been involved in planning and development of services,
delivery of patient care, and supervision and teaching of junior staff members. She currently
serves as Medical Director of the Day Treatment Program, our highest level of patient care. With
all of our clinical programs, Dr. Trunko has performed comprehensive psychiatric evaluations,
handled psychiatric medication management, coordinated primary care and other medical
services, and educated patients and their families on physiological, medical and psychological Dr. Trunko is board certified in both psychiatry and internal medicine, an unusual combination that is highly relevant to the understanding and treatment of eating disorders. She has used this specialty knowledge to help educate primary care providers on the care of eating-disordered patients through presentations and consultation. On the research side she has served as a study physician for our clinical trials, where she has conducted physical examinations as well as psychiatric evaluations and psychological assessments with study participants. Along with Dr. Kaye, Dr. Trunko has a strong interest in developing new and better treatments for eating disorders, and has collaborated with him on publishing review papers and clinical case reports exploring more effective pharmacological interventions. Dr. Trunko earned her M.D. degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, and completed separate residencies in internal medicine and psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. |
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Joyce A. Adams, M.D.Professor of Clinical Pediatrics Joyce A. Adams, MD is a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics with the UCSD Department of Pediatrics, Division of General Academic Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. She has been a full time faculty member in Adolescent Medicine at UCSD since November, 1994, and has developed a special interest and expertise in treating children, teens, and young adults with eating disorders. She has been named in “Best Doctors in America” 4 times since 2005 and was named “San Diego’s Best Doctors” in 2011. Dr. Adams regularly attends workshops on eating disorder medical management at the annual meeting of the Society for Adolescent Medicine (SAM) and teaches at local conferences adolescent eating disorders. She is a member of SAM’s Special Interest Group on Eating Disorders, and participates in listserv discussions on issues in medical management. Dr. Adams has been involved in evaluating and treating patients with eating disorders for the past ten years. Prior to the opening of the Medical West Medical/Behavioral Unit, she admitted 4 to 5 patients every year to Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego, if they meet the criteria for medical hospitalization. Medical care includes monitored re-feeding, and cardiac monitoring. She developed a protocol for assessing and monitoring patients who are dehydrated, seriously malnourished, have very low resting heart rates or orthostatic changes in pulse or blood pressure. Dr. Adams also provides medical assessments and follow-up for patients who need those services prior to beginning the Intensive Family Therapy program at the UCSD Eating Disorders Program and those patients in an outpatient program who become medically unstable. |
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Kerri Boutelle, Ph.D.Psychological Services and Training Director Eating Disorders Treatment and Research Program Dr. Kerri Boutelle joined the UC San Diego Faculty from the University of Minnesota, where she was the Director of a child and adolescent eating disorder and obesity program and created and researched treatments for children who are overweight. Dr. Boutelle has been working with youth and young adults who have weight or eating related issues for over 12 years. Dr. Boutelle is the Behavioral Director of the Weight and Wellness Clinic, a clinic for youth (and their families) who struggle with their weight, and leads parenting groups and provides individual and family therapy. Dr. Boutelle also sees patients in the eating disorder program for family based and individual treatment of anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder and EDNOS. Dr. Boutelle's current research is focused on parenting children to reduce weight, parent and child skills for reducing binge eating, and epidemiological studies regarding adolescents who have been successful in weight loss. |
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Vikas Duvvuri, M.D., Ph.D.Medical Director - Adolescent Programs Eating Disorders Treatment and Research Program Dr. Vikas Duvvuri is a physician-scientist with both a clinical specialty and a research focus in eating disorders. He received undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Biology with Honor from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), a Ph.D. in Neurosciences from Stanford University School of Medicine and an M.D. from UC San Diego School of Medicine. He completed a research-track Psychiatry residency from UC San Diego School of Medicine, where he was Chief Resident. He is the Psychiatrist in charge of the NIH-funded RIAN study for the treatment of adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa. Under the guidance and support of Dr. Kaye, he is establishing a research program to identify molecular networks and brain circuits altered in eating disorders, that will serve as targets for novel treatments. To study molecular networks that confer risk for eating disorders, he uses custom bioinformatics methods on human genetic data and to better define changes in the function of brain circuits, he uses pharmaco-fMRI and neurophysiological measures. He has previously mechanistically tested human findings from the serotonergic system in a preclinical model and hopes to apply this to upcoming human data. |
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