Kate Tchanturia

Kate Tchanturia (born 1960) is a Professor of Psychology in Eating Disorders at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. She is also Consultant Psychologist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust for the National Eating Disorder Service London, United Kingdom. Her main research interests include cultural differences in illness presentations, cognitive profiles in eating disorders, and experimental work in emotion processing and translational research from experimental findings to real clinical practice.[1] Tchanturia has a particular interest in women’s mental health and has pioneered the novel pathway for the autism spectrum condition (ASC) and eating disorder comorbidity.[2][3]

Professor Kate Tchanturia, 2013

Education

Tchanturia began her academic career at Tbilisi State University, Georgia (country) in 1977, gaining her BSc in General and Experimental Psychology in 1982 and her doctorate in Experimental Psychology (PhD) in 1988. She relocated to London, United Kingdom in 1997 and was accredited as a chartered clinical psychologist (2001) and later awarded fellowship of the British Psychological Society in 2014.[1]

Career and research

Academic career

Tchanturia became an associate professor at Tbilisi State University in 1995. After relocating to London in 1997, she became a clinical research fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London in 1998. She was later appointed a Lecturer in Mental Health Studies and Eating Disorders at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience in 2004. Tchanturia’s research primarily concerns the cognitive and socio-emotional aspects of eating disorders, implementing positive psychology in clinical practice. She has adapted a cognitive training programme for eating disorders, called Cognitive Remediation Therapy, which seeks to address inflexible and overly detail-focused cognitive styles in patients with eating disorders. Her latest research investigates the nature of autistic traits in patients with eating disorders.[1] She has developed a novel clinical pathway for patients with comorbid autism spectrum disorders and eating disorders at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust National Eating Disorders Service.[3]

Clinical career

Tchanturia worked as a clinical psychologist at Tbilisi City Psychiatric Hospital from 1982-1985. She was then appointed to the role of Consultant Clinical Psychologist for the Outpatient Department of the Institute of Psychiatry in Tbilisi.

After relocating to the United Kingdom, Tchanturia worked as a Clinical Research Fellow at Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London from 1998-2003. She subsequently continued her work as a locum psychologist and later Consultant (lead) Clinical Psychologist for the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust from and is currently employed in this role.

Pathway for Eating Disorders and Autism

Tchanturia’s research paved the way for the extensive research at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust eating disorders service. Research from her lab identified an overlap between ASC and eating disorders and found that approximately 35% of women with anorexia nervosa have comorbid ASC however, females are at elevated risk of their ASC going undiagnosed as their difficulties are frequently mislabelled or missed entirely. Therefore, women in eating disorder services who have comorbid ASC often go undiagnosed and fail to receive appropriate treatment.[1] Tchanturia and colleagues have developed and implemented a novel clinical pathway tailored to the needs of ASC patients with eating disorders: The PEACE Pathway (Pathway for Eating disorders and Autism developed from Clinical Experience). This clinical pathway was funded by The Health Foundation and further supported by The Maudsley Charity. The novel pathway was developed using the Institute for Healthcare’s Model of Improvement methodology, using an iterative Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) format to introduce change and to co-produce the work with their main stakeholders; people with lived experience, carers and with clinicians.[1]

Based on findings from their qualitative studies that mapped out the needs for the three stakeholders, Tchanturia and colleagues collaboratively engaged people with lived experience, carers, and clinicians from the National Eating Disorder Service to develop the PEACE clinical pathway. The PEACE acronym stands for "Pathway for Eating disorders and Autism developed from Clinical Experience".[1]

As the Principal Investigator of the PEACE Pathway, Tchanturia has been disseminating her findings through several means, including a book, peer-reviewed publications, social media platforms, conferences around the world, interviews with the media and a website. The website includes a range of free resources and blog posts for all three of the main stakeholders. It also includes a carers forum.[3]

Publications

Tchanturia has written several textbooks relating to eating disorders treatment, including: Brief Group Psychotherapy for Eating Disorders, Ed Tchanturia K (2015) Routledge[4] and Cognitive Remediation Therapy (CRT) for Eating and Weight Disorders, Ed Tchanturia K (2015) Routledge.[5] Her latest book titled Supporting Autistic People with Eating Disorders: A Guide to Adapting Treatment and Supporting Recovery will be out in March 2021 and published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.[6][7]

Tchanturia is the author of over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles. Her H index in 2020 is 54 and her work has accrued over 9,800 citations, 25 papers cited more than 100 times.[1]

Honours and awards

In 2018, Tchanturia received the Normann Munn Distinguished Visiting Scholar Award, which sponsored research at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. She was also the recipient of the Service User Award for Best Psychological Service in the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust in 2015 and the recipient of an NHS Innovator Prize in 2007.[1] In 2020, Tchanturia was awarded the Leadership Award in Research by the Academy of Eating Disorders.[8]

During her time at King’s College London, Tchanturia received the Best Contribution to Postgraduate Student Experience in 2012 and 2019, a Teaching and Supervisory Excellence Award in 2014, and an Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009.[9] She is the recipient of research funding from The Royal Society, The Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, The Health Foundation, The Maudsley Charity, Psychiatry Research Trust, Swiss Anorexia Foundation, and NHS Innovation.[1]

References
  1. "Kate Tchanturia – Research Portal, King's College, London". Kclpure.kcl.ac.uk.
  2. "Clinical packages & Protocols". katetchanturia.com.
  3. "PEACE Pathway Website". peacepathway.org.
  4. Tchanturia, Kate, (2015). Brief group psychotherapy for eating disorders : inpatient protocols (1 ed.). Hove, East Sussex: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-84888-7.
  5. Tchanturia, Kate, (2015). (2015). Cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) for eating and weight disorders (1 ed.). Hove, East Sussex: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-79402-3.
  6. Eating Disorders Research Group
  7. SLaM National Services
  8. "Academy for Eating Disorders". www.aedweb.org.
  9. "Kate Tchanturia - Prizes - Research Portal, King's College, London". kclpure.kcl.ac.uk.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.