Before coming to CHR, Dr. DeBar was a staff psychologist at the Portland VA Medical Center and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the department of Medical Psychology and Psychiatry at OHSU.

DeBar is exploring the interface between primary care medicine and behavioral and mental health within health care systems. She is working to better understand real-world implementations of mental and behavioral health care, which is often provided by general practitioners. DeBar headed one such study examining more closely how and in what treatment circumstances children are prescribed psychiatric medications such as psychostimulants, antidepressants, and neuroleptics. Although previous studies had described an increase in the prescribing of psychiatric drugs among school-age and younger children, the context was poorly understood. Because of the close link with a clinical practice setting, this study was able to better understand the context for this care.

DeBar works closely with physicians at Kaiser Permanente Northwest to bring aspects of her research findings into clinical practice. "It's very satisfying to take what we learn through our research and work with clinicians to implement it in the medical office visit," she explains. "Even though I'm not working actively as a clinician right now, I've done so in the past and I understand the challenges from the clinician's point of view," she says. "I'm also really impressed with Kaiser's support for our research," DeBar continues. "Kaiser gives us latitude so that we, as researchers, can step up to the cutting edge and look for solutions that can be taken into the real world of health care services."

In addition to bringing research findings into clinical practice, DeBar is interested in how clinical practice can influence the design of mental health interventions. Research interventions are often performed in a restricted, highly structured academic setting. By developing mental health interventions that more closely reflect clinical practice, the results can more easily contribute to patient care. For example, DeBar is collaborating with colleagues across the nation on one study examining the treatment of eating disorders. Much research has explored how to treat these disorders, but the problem is still under-diagnosed in practice. This study examines the broad spectrum of eating disorders as they appear in clinical practice with an intervention designed to be delivered without requiring a highly trained specialist.

Current Studies:

	Brief, Primary Care CBT for Unmedicated Depressed Youth — STAND
	Development of a CBT Model for Adolescent Bulimia Spectrum Disorders—Claire Project
	Effectiveness of Guided Self-Help for Binge Eating — BEST
	Measurement of Family Cost of Children’s Mental Illness
	Prevention of Depression—POD
	Primary Care Treatment for Overweight Adolescent Females — SHINE
	Studies to Treat or Prevent Pediatric Type 2 Diabetes — HEALTHY
	Treatment of SSRI-Resistant Depression in Adolescents — TORDIA

Recently Completed Studies:

	Examining the Effectiveness and Feasibility of Collaborative Care Treatment of Overweight Adolescents
	Financial Incentives in Depression — FIND
	Lifestyle Change to Increase Bone Density in Teen Girls—YOUTH
	Naturalistic Pharmacotherapy for Youth Depression — LEAP
	Study for Testing Effective Approaches for Depression in Youth— STEADY

E-mail: Lynn.DeBar@kpchr.org