Robyn Sysko, PhD

  • Former Global Mental Health Scholar

Dr. Sysko is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Center of Excellence for Eating and Weight Disorders, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and a licensed clinical psychologist. She has conducted research on both eating and weight disorders, and is currently the Principal Investigator on a career development award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, to examine the relationship between weight, mood, and quality of life among adolescents enrolled in a bariatric surgery program.

Dr. Sysko has also studied the nosology of eating disorders, including the utility of an alternative diagnostic scheme (Broad Categories for the Diagnosis of Eating Disorders; BCD-ED), the frequency criterion for bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder, the short-term test-retest reliability of DSM-5 eating disorder diagnoses, and whether the BCD-ED proposal was effective in reducing the number of individuals with a residual eating disorder diagnosis. Most recently, along with Deborah Glasofer, PhD, and B. Timothy Walsh, MD, Dr. Sysko has worked to develop an assessment to classify individuals with DSM-5 feeding and eating disorders (Eating Disorders Assessment for DSM-5; EDA-5).

As a GMH Scholar, Dr. Sysko was involved with projects for the World Health Organization (WHO)’s revision of the classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). In the ICD-11 development process, her work included assisting the Columbia Global Mental Health and WHO staff to develop and analyze Internet-based field studies focused on feeding and eating disorders. This led to several publications, including a manuscript and chapter:

  • Berner, L. A., Sysko, R. Rebello, T., Roberto, C. A., & Pike, K. M. (2020). Patient descriptions of loss of control and eating episode size interact to influence expert diagnosis of ICD-11 binge eating disorder. Journal of Eating Disorders, 8, 71.
  • Pike, K. M., Sysko, R., & Bryant-Waugh, R. (in press). Feeding and eating disorders. In G. Reed (Ed.), A Psychological Approach to Diagnosis: Using the ICD-11 as a Framework. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
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