Dr. Kelsie Forbush

CARE & COPE Lab Director
Professor, Department of Psychology

Contact Info

kforbush@ku.edu

Biography —

Dr. Kelsie Forbush has been conducting research and treatment in the field of eating disorders since 2000. She completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Iowa under the mentorship of Dr. David Watson (now at the University of Notre Dame). She completed her internship/residency training at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, PA, under the supervision and mentorship of Dr. Jennifer Wildes. Dr. Forbush has experience treating outpatients and inpatients with eating disorders, as well as experience working with families and individuals suffering from mood, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance use, and personality disorders. In her spare time, Dr. Forbush enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter, reading books, attending performing arts concerts, taking ballet classes, spending time with friends, and training her two adorable Havenese dogs, Gus and Peanut

Education —

Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology , University of Iowa

Research —

Dr. Forbush's research interest and lab involve examining the reasons for diagnostic co-morbidity among eating, mood, and anxiety disorders and explicating the internal structure of eating pathology through scale development and assessment. Additionally, our lab is conducting several research studies that are designed to understand the associations (both cross-sectional and longitudinal) between eating behaviors and various other types of psychological difficulties, as well as research designed to develop better ways of assessing, diagnosing, and treating abnormal eating behaviors. Finally, Dr. Forbush and her lab have an emerging area of interest in the development of m-health interventions for eating disorders.

Selected Publications —

Bohrer, B. K., Chen, Y., Christensen, K. A., Forbush, K. T., Thomeczek, M. L., Richson, B. N., Chapa, D. A. N., Jarmolowicz, D. P., Gould, S. R., Negi, S., Perko, V. L., & Morgan, R. W. (2023). A pilot multiple-baseline study of a mobile cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of eating disorders in university students. The International journal of eating disorders, 56(8), 1623–1636. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23987

Forbush, K. T., Richson, B. N., Swanson, T. J., Thomeczek, M. L., Negi, S., Johnson, S. N., Chapa, D. A. N., Morgan, R. W., O'Brien, C. J., Gould, S. R., Christensen, K. A., & Chen, Y. (2022). Screening for eating disorders across genders in college students: Initial validation of the brief assessment of stress and eating. The International journal of eating disorders, 55(11), 1553–1564. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23815

Christensen, K. A., Hagan, K. E., & Forbush, K. T. (2022). Clinical science can address rising eating disorder psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic: Comment on Gruber et al. (2020). The American psychologist, 77(1), 140–142. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000765

Richson, B. N., Johnson, S. N., Swanson, T. J., Christensen, K. A., Forbush, K. T., & Wildes, J. E. (2021). Predicting probable eating disorder case-status in men using the Clinical Impairment Assessment: Evidence for a gender-specific threshold. Eating behaviors, 42, 101541. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2021.101541

Swanson, T., Teixeira, A. S., Richson, B. N., Li, Y., Hills, T., Forbush, K. T., … Stella, M. (2021, November 17). Cognitive networks identify dimensions of distress in suicide notes: Anxiety, emotional profiles, and "words not said". https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/8gvr2

Forbush, K. T., Swanson, T. J., Gaddy, M., Oehlert, M., Doan, A., Morgan, R. W., O'Brien, C., Chen, Y., Christian, K., Song, Q. C., Watson, D., & Wiese, J. (2023). Design and methods of the Longitudinal Eating Disorders Assessment Project research consortium for veterans. International journal of methods in psychiatric research, 32(2), e1941. https://doi.org/10.1002/mpr.1941

Christensen, K. A., Forbush, K. T., Richson, B. N., Thomeczek, M. L., Perko, V. L., Bjorlie, K., Christian, K., Ayres, J., Wildes, J. E., & Mildrum Chana, S. (2021). Food insecurity associated with elevated eating disorder symptoms, impairment, and eating disorder diagnoses in an American University student sample before and during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The International journal of eating disorders, 54(7), 1213–1223. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23517

Hagan, K. E., Jarmolowicz, D. P., & Forbush, K. T. (2021). Reconsidering delay discounting in bulimia nervosa. Eating behaviors, 41, 101506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2021.101506

Bjorlie, K., Forbush, K. T., Chapa, D. A. N., Richson, B. N., Johnson, S. N., & Fazzino, T. L. (2022). Hyper-palatable food consumption during binge-eating episodes: A comparison of intake during binge eating and restricting. The International journal of eating disorders, 55(5), 688–696. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23692

Won, Y. Q., Christensen, K. A., & Forbush, K. T. (2022). Habitual adaptive emotion regulation moderates the association between maladaptive emotion regulation and eating disorder symptoms, but not clinical impairment. Eating and weight disorders : EWD, 27(7), 2629–2639. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-022-01399-2

Richson, B. N., Forbush, K. T., Schaumberg, K., Crosby, R. D., Peterson, C. B., Crow, S. J., & Mitchell, J. E. (2020). Are the Criterion B binge-eating symptoms interchangeable in understanding binge-eating severity? An item response theory analysis. The International journal of eating disorders, 53(12), 1983–1992. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23383

Christensen Pacella, K. A., Chen, Y., Forbush, K. T., Cushing, C. C., & Swinburne Romine, R. (2023). Prospectively predicting naturalistic exposure to fitspiration and thinspiration in young women with disordered eating by leveraging an ecological momentary assessment design. Eating behaviors, 50, 101767. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2023.101767

Conway, C. C., Forbes, M. K., Forbush, K. T., Fried, E. I., Hallquist, M. N., Kotov, R., Mullins-Sweatt, S. N., Shackman, A. J., Skodol, A. E., South, S. C., Sunderland, M., Waszczuk, M. A., Zald, D. H., Afzali, M. H., Bornovalova, M. A., Carragher, N., Docherty, A. R., Jonas, K. G., Krueger, R. F., … Eaton, N. R. (2019). A Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology Can Transform Mental Health Research [Journal Articles]. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE, 14(3), 419–436. DOI:10.1177/1745691618810696

Perko, V. L., Forbush, K. T., Siew, C. S. Q., & Tregarthen, J. P. (2019). Application of network analysis to investigate sex differences in interactive systems of eating-disorder psychopathology [Journal Articles]. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EATING DISORDERS. Published. DOI:10.1002/eat.23170

Forbush, K. T., Chen, P.-Y., Hagan, K. E., Chapa, D. A. N., Gould, S. R., Eaton, N. R., & Krueger, R. F. (2018). A new approach to eating-disorder classification: Using empirical methods to delineate diagnostic dimensions and inform care [Journal Articles]. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EATING DISORDERS, 51(7), 710–721. DOI:10.1002/eat.22891

Wildes, J. E., Forbush, K. T., Hagan, K. E., Marcus, M. D., Attia, E., Gianini, L. M., & Wu, W. (2017). Characterizing severe and enduring anorexia nervosa: An empirical approach [Journal Articles]. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EATING DISORDERS, 50(4), 389–397. DOI:10.1002/eat.22651

Forbush, K. T., Hagan, K. E., Salk, R. H., & Wildes, J. E. (2017). Concurrent and Prognostic Utility of Subtyping Anorexia Nervosa Along Dietary and Negative Affect Dimensions [Journal Articles]. JOURNAL OF CONSULTING AND CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, 85(3), 228–237. DOI:10.1037/ccp0000164

Hagan, K. E., Forbush, K. T., & Chen, P.-Y. (2017). Is Dietary Restraint a Unitary or Multi-Faceted Construct? [Journal Articles]. PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT, 29(10), 1249–1260. DOI:10.1037/pas0000429

Kotov, R., Krueger, R. F., Watson, D., Achenbach, T. M., Althoff, R. R., Bagby, R. M., Brown, T. A., Carpenter, W. T., Caspi, A., Clark, L. A., Eaton, N. R., Forbes, M. K., Forbush, K. T., Goldberg, D., Hasin, D., Hyman, S. E., Ivanova, M. Y., Lynam, D. R., Markon, K., … Zimmerman, M. (2017). The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP): A Dimensional Alternative to Traditional Nosologies [Journal Articles]. JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY, 126(4), 454–477. DOI:10.1037/abn0000258

Bohrer, B. K., Carroll, I. A., Forbush, K. T., & Chen, P.-Y. (2017). Treatment seeking for eating disorders: Results from a nationally representative study [Journal Articles]. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EATING DISORDERS, 50(12), 1341–1349. DOI:10.1002/eat.22785

Forbush, K. T., Hagan, K. E., Kite, B. A., Chapa, D. A. N., Bohrer, B. K., & Gould, S. R. (2017). Understanding eating disorders within internalizing psychopathology: A novel transdiagnostic, hierarchical-dimensional model [Journal Articles]. COMPREHENSIVE PSYCHIATRY, 79, 40–52. DOI:10.1016/j.comppsych.2017.06.009

Wildes, J. E., & Forbush, K. T. (2015). Ethnicity as a Risk Factor for Eating Disorders [Book Chapters]. In M. Levine & L. Smolak (Eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Eating Disorders (pp. 325–337). Wiley.

Forbush, K. T., & Hunt, T. K. (2014). Characterization of eating patterns among individuals with eating disorders: What is the state of the plate? [Journal Articles]. PHYSIOLOGY & BEHAVIOR, 134, 92–109. DOI:10.1016/j.physbeh.2014.02.045

Forbush, K. T., Wildes, J. E., Pollack, L. O., Dunbar, D., Luo, J., Patterson, K., Petruzzi, L., Pollpeter, M., Miller, H., Stone, A., Bright, A., & Watson, D. (2013). Development and Validation of the Eating Pathology Symptoms Inventory (EPSI) [Journal Articles]. PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT, 25(3), 859–878. DOI:10.1037/a0032639

Ruggero, C. J., Kotov, R., Hopwood, C., First, M., Clark, L. A., Mullins-Sweatt, S. N., Patrick, C. J., Bach, B. S., Cicero, D., Docherty, A., Bagby, M., Krueger, R. F., Callahan, J., Chmielewski, M., Conway, C., De Clercq, B. J., Dornbach-Bender, A., Eaton, N., Forbes, M., & Forbush, K. T. (accepted/in press). Integrating the hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology into clinical practice [Journal Articles]. JOURNAL OF CONSULTING AND CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY.