Dana Bakula, PhD
Child Psychologist; Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine
Full BiographyStephani L. Stancil, PhD, APRN
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Research Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Full Biography
Two Children’s Mercy Researchers received the FY23 KL2 Mentored Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health (National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences) via a University of Kansas Medical Center subaward with their project periods starting in July 2022 and wrapping up in June 2023.
Dana Bakula, PhD, Pediatric Psychologist, received funding toward her study “Intervention for Stress and Mental Health with Parents of Children with Feeding Problems.” She received $120,523 for the first year of the funding agreement. The project period is expected to continue for a second year with more funding at that time. For this study Dr. Bakula is also received $7,020 under a separate KUMC subaward for additional expenses.
Dr. Bakula’s project involved developing and pilot testing a new intervention for parents of children with pediatric feeding disorder. Pediatric feeding disorder is a condition that affects young children and occurs when a child has such a difficult time eating that it impacts their growth and nutrition.
As Dr. Bakula explains, one-third of young children and up to 80 percent of children with developmental delays experience pediatric feeding disorder. Parents of these children experience significantly increased levels of mental health problems including depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and parenting stress, associated with the burden, fear, and uncertainty that may come with parenting a child who struggles to obtain adequate nutrition to survive. Pediatric feeding experts and parents alike have agreed that there is a need to specifically address the mental health problems parents of these children may be experiencing for both their sake as well as the health of their child.
“The goal of this intervention is to teach parents ways to manage their stress, as caring for a child with a pediatric feeding disorder is very stressful, and that stress can impact how parents interact with their children, particularly at mealtime,” explained Dr. Bakula.
Dr. Bakula and her team developed the intervention with consultation from parents of children with pediatric feeding disorder as well as two internationally-recognized psychologists who specialize in parent stress. She and the team pilot tested this intervention at Children’s Mercy with families seen in the hospital’s Interdisciplinary Feeding and Swallowing Clinic.
Stephani Stancil, PhD, APRN, Adolescent Medicine, Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, received funding through several institutes for her latest study that explores eating disorders.
Dr. Stancil’s KL2 Scholar award provided $163,931 via NIH funding and $7,020 through internal KUMC supplemental funds for the first year of Dr. Stancil’s project. The second funding Dr. Stancil received is a K23 award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The funding provides $187,485 to cover the first year of the project with a total of $743,886 over the next four years.
The funds are being used for Dr. Stancil’s study, “Development of a Pharmacodynamic Biomarker of Opioid Antagonism in Adolescents with Eating Disorders.”
This study evaluates neuroimaging, specifically functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), as a tool to detect drug response in the brain of teens with eating disorders. Specifically, the study determines if fMRI can detect reward system changes following a medication called naltrexone.
Eating disorders typically begin in adolescence and affect up to five percent of teens. They are associated with complications like malnutrition, cardiac compromise, and substance use disorder, have the second highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness (following substance use disorder), and don’t respond well to current treatments.
Dr. Stancil combined expertise in clinical pharmacology with advanced training in neuroimaging and pediatric clinical trials to define central nervous system drug action in children and adolescents. This randomized controlled trial provided a practical application of these skills to develop a quantitative biomarker of drug response to serve in clinical trials of candidate treatments.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used to visualize reward system alterations in obesity, substance use, and eating disorders as well as to detect modulation by opioid antagonism in adults. If validated in teens, this non-invasive response biomarker can link medication exposure with response in the brain and support drug discovery efforts.
The project includes the following mentors: William Brooks, PhD (KUMC), Laura Martin, PhD (KUMC), Ann Davis, PhD (CM), Jeffrey Strawn, MD (University of Cincinnati), Susan Abdel-Rahman, PharmD and the following co-investigators: Hung-Wen Yeh, PhD, MS (CM), J. Steven Leeder, PharmD, PhD (CM), Michaela Voss, MD (CM), and James Bartolotti, PhD (KUMC).
Frontiers Clinical & Translational Science Institute (CTSI) spotlighted both researchers. You can read Dr. Bakula's here and Dr. Stancil's here.
The contents are those of the investigator and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by NIH, or the U.S. Government.