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.