Carrie McAdams, M.D., Ph.D.

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Dr. Carrie McAdams is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry with Tenure at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. McAdams received her BA, magna cum laude, with double majors in biochemistry and behavioral science from Rice University. She received a PhD in neuroscience from Baylor College of Medicine in 1998 and her MD with honors in 2000, and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. She has published extensively in the field of attention and visual neurophysiology.  

In 2006, Dr. McAdams shifted her research focus from basic animal models of cognition to the neuroscience of mental illness, concurrently beginning residency in psychiatry at UT Southwestern.  During her residency at UT Southwestern, Dr. McAdams received the Chairman’s Research Award for her paper on neuroimaging of social identity in eating disorders, and established a research program focused on understanding brain function in outpatients with eating disorders. Her primary expertise is in the utilization of cognitive neuroimaging to pinpoint neural circuits related to psychopathology, and applying this information to patient care.

A committed physician scientist, Dr. McAdams currently leads the Brain-Body Perceptions Team. Her program focuses on determining how changes in the physical body relate to the neural circuits that process self-perception and impact social behaviors, and their relationship to women's mental health. Her current research program considers the whole person: genetic factors, gut microbiome, neural circuits, and every patients' lived experiences. She believes that a mechanistic understanding of psychopathology will lead to precise neural targets, improving treatment for patients with mental illness.

Other Post Graduate Training

Baylor College of Medicine (1998)

Graduate School

Baylor College of Medicine (1998), Neuroscience

Medical School

Baylor College of Medicine (2000)

Fellowship

Harvard University Medical School (2006), Neurobiology

Residency

UT Southwestern Medical Center (2010), Psychiatry

• Eating Disorders
• Functional Neuroimaging
• Neuroplasticity
• Social Cognition and Identity
• Visual Attention

Featured Publications

Mentalization and the left inferior frontal gyrus and insula.

McAdams CJ, Harper JA, Van Enkevort E Eur Eat Disord Rev 2018 Feb

Oxytocin Receptor Polymorphism Decreases Midline Neural Activations to Social Stimuli in Anorexia Nervosa.

Sala M, Han K, Acevedo S, Krawczyk DC, McAdams CJ Front Psychol 2018 9 2183

Novel and ultra-rare damaging variants in neuropeptide signaling are associated with disordered eating behaviors.

Lutter M, Bahl E, Hannah C, Hofammann D, Acevedo S, Cui H, McAdams CJ, Michaelson JJ PLoS ONE 2017 12 8 e0181556

Neural differences in self-perception during illness and after weight-recovery in anorexia nervosa.

McAdams CJ, Jeon-Slaughter H, Evans S, Lohrenz T, Montague PR, Krawczyk DC Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2016 Jun

Neural responses to kindness and malevolence differ in illness and recovery in women with anorexia nervosa.

McAdams CJ, Lohrenz T, Montague PR Hum Brain Mapp 2015 Sep

Severity of eating disorder symptoms related to oxytocin receptor polymorphisms in anorexia nervosa.

Acevedo SF, Valencia C, Lutter M, McAdams CJ Psychiatry Res 2015 Jun

Perspectives on Sexual Power, #MeToo.

McAdams CJ, Acad Psychiatry 2019 Dec

Psychosis in Anorexia Nervosa: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Brodrick BB, Jacobs MA, McAdams CJ, Psychosomatics 2019 Jun

Treatment Utilization and Medical Problems in a Community Sample of Adult Women With Anorexia Nervosa.

Brodrick B, Harper JA, Van Enkevort E, McAdams CJ, Front Psychol 2019 10 981

Orthorexia Nervosa and Eating Disorder Symptoms in Registered Dietitian Nutritionists in the United States.

Tremelling K, Sandon L, Vega GL, McAdams CJ J Acad Nutr Diet 2017 Jun

• L.E.A.D, The Elisa Project
  Learn-Empower-Accept-Discover (2018)
• Klerman Prize Honorable Mention, Brain & Behavior Foundation
  Exceptional Research in Clinical Brain and Behavior Science (2015)
• AED Research Fellowship
  Academy of Eating Disorders Research Training Award (2011)
• American Psychiatric Association Research Colloquium Fellowship
  Research Training Program for Residents and Fellows (2010)
• UTSW Psychiatry Chairman's Research Award
  Awarded for research conducted in residency (2010)

• Academy for Eating Disorders (2009)
• American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (2019)
• American Psychiatric Association (2006)
• Psychiatric Research Society (2015)
• Society for Neuroscience (1994)
• Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians (2006)