Department / Division:
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences / Medical Psychology

Address:
DUMC 3842
Durham, NC 27710

Appointment Telephone:
919-668-7301

Office Telephone:
919-668-2281

Fax Telephone:
919-681-7347

• PhD, Clinical Psychology, Duke University Medical Center, 2000

• Clinical Associate, Duke University Medical Center, 1999-2000

• National Institute of Health Training Fellowship

• Behavioral Medicine

Clinical Interests:
Research focused on developing novel treatments for individuals with eating disorders and children who struggle with weight management; integration of family members into effective treatment strategies

Research Interests:
Our laboratory studies individuals who have difficulty detecting, interpreting, and/or using signals from their body and using this information to guide adaptive behavior, particularly in interpersonal contexts. Our primary populations of study are individuals struggling with eating disorders and feeding disorders of childhood: conditions that are sine quo non for dysregulation of basic motivational drives. Several conditions are of particular focus due to the presence of profound deficits in interoception or/and integration of internal arousal: anorexia nervosa, a disorder notable for extreme, determined, rigid, and repetitive behaviors promoting malnourishment and the inability to use signals of interoception and proprioception in the service of goal-directed actions, pediatric binge eating, a model of appetitive dysregulation marked for its early occurrence in the life cycle, and childhood feeding disorders, children who evidence early disturbance in the range of foodstuffs they are willing to sample. Study of children allows us to ask different questions about disorder etiology, maintenance, and course as we can minimize the impact of malnutrition on brain function and perhaps better characterize prior learning history.

Our parallel line of research examines how individuals’ sense others when they have difficulties sensing themselves. Increasing evidence suggests that we understand others via embodied enactments of our own experiences. These findings have profound implications for individuals who have dysfunction in the experience of their bodies as it suggests limited capacities to truly understand others’ experiences. By studying these processes in parallel, we hope to better understand how this interaction between sensing ourselves and others unfolds.

Representative Publications:
Zucker, N.L., Marcus, M., & Bulik, C. (2006). A group parent-training program: A novel approach to eating disorder management. Eating and Weight Disorders, 11, 78-83. (2006)

Mazzeo SE, Zucker NL, Gerke CK, Mitchell KS, Bulik CM. Parenting concerns of women with histories of eating disorders. Int J Eat Disord. 2005;37 Suppl:S77-9; discussion S87-9. (2005) Abstract

Zucker, N.L., Ferriter, C., Best, S., & Brantley, A. (in press). Group Parent Training: A Novel Approach for Eating Disorder Treatment. Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention.

Varnado-Sullivan, P.J. & Zucker, N. L. (2004). The Body Logic Program for Adolescents: A Treatment Manual for the Prevention of Eating Disorders. Behavior Modification, 28, 854-875.
(2004)

Womble LG, Williamson DA, Martin CK, Zucker NL, Thaw JM, Netemeyer R, Lovejoy JC, Greenway FL. Psychosocial variables associated with binge eating in obese males and females. Int J Eat Disord. 2001 Sep;30(2):217-21. (2001) Abstract

Williamson DA, Womble LG, Zucker NL, Reas DL, White MA, Blouin DC, Greenway F. Body image assessment for obesity (BIA-O): development of a new procedure. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2000 Oct;24(10):1326-32. (2000) Abstract

Reas DL, Williamson DA, Martin CK, Zucker NL. Duration of illness predicts outcome for bulimia nervosa: a long-term follow-up study. Int J Eat Disord. 2000 May;27(4):428-34. (2000) Abstract

Zucker, N.L., Losh, M., Bulik, C.M., Labar, K.S., Piven, J., & Pelphrey, K.A. (in press). Anorexia Nervosa and Autism Spectrum Disorders: Guided Investigation of Social Cognitive Endophenotypes, Psychological Bulletin.