Bunmi Olatunji

Last updated
Bunmi O. Olatunji
Born1977 (age 44–45)
Alma mater University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (BA)
University of Arkansas (MA, PhD)
Scientific career
Institutions Vanderbilt University
Harvard University
Thesis Evaluative learning, emotional processing, and extinction of fear and disgust in blood-injection-injury (BII) phobia  (2006)

Bunmi O. Olatunji (born 1977) is an American psychologist who is Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in Social Sciences at Vanderbilt University. He is Director of the Emotion and Anxiety Research Laboratory and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for the Vanderbilt University Graduate School. Olatunji studies the psychopathology of obsessive–compulsive disorder.

Contents

Early life and education

Olatunji earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. [1] He was inducted into the Psi Chi honour society. Olatunji moved to the University of Arkansas for his graduate studies, where he earned a master's degree in clinical psychology in 2002. He remained there for his doctoral research, working alongside Jeffrey Lohr on blood-injection-injury type phobia. [2] After completing his thesis Olatunji moved to Harvard Medical School where he worked as a psychology fellow. [3]

Research and career

In 2006 Olatunji joined Vanderbilt University. [4] He serves as clinical Director of Rogers Behavioural Health and Director of the Emotion and Anxiety Research Laboratory. [5] [6] Olatunji makes use of experimental psychopathology to understand basic emotions and how they relate to anxiety disorders. [7] During the 2009 swine flu pandemic Olatunji demonstrated that alongside the significant publicity, pandemics can cause anxiety and behavioural changes. [8] He studied the psychological predictors of pandemic-related anxiety. he showed that general health anxiety, fears of contamination and disgust sensitivity were associated with influenza A virus subtype H1N1. [8]

Olatunji has studied the etiology and development of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). [9] To better understand OCD, Olatunji has investigated the neural substrates of disgust. [9] He believes that OCD can be characterised by heightened disgust learning. [9] He studies disgust learning using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during disgust conditioning tasks. [9] Beyond his work on obsessive–compulsive disorder and anxiety, Olatunji has studied post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans. [10]

In 2020 Olatunji was made Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in Social and Natural Sciences at Vanderbilt University. [1]

Academic service

Olatunji serves on the editorial board of several journals, including the International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, Behavior Therapy and the Psychological Bulletin. [11] In 2019 Olatunji was made Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for the Vanderbilt University Graduate School. [4] [12]

Awards and honours

Select publications

Related Research Articles

Hypochondriasis Medical condition

Hypochondriasis or hypochondria is a condition in which a person is excessively and unduly worried about having a serious illness. An old concept, the meaning of hypochondria has repeatedly changed. It has been claimed that this debilitating condition results from an inaccurate perception of the condition of body or mind despite the absence of an actual medical diagnosis. An individual with hypochondriasis is known as a hypochondriac. Hypochondriacs become unduly alarmed about any physical or psychological symptoms they detect, no matter how minor the symptom may be, and are convinced that they have, or are about to be diagnosed with, a serious illness.

Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder Personality disorder involving orderliness

Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is a cluster C personality disorder marked by an excessive need for orderliness, neatness, and perfectionism. Symptoms are usually present by the time a person reaches adulthood, and are visible in a variety of situations. The cause of OCPD is thought to involve a combination of genetic and environmental factors, namely problems with attachment.

Compulsive hoarding Behavioral pattern

Compulsive hoarding, also known as hoarding disorder is a clinically recognised mental health condition. The disorder is characterised by accumulation of possessions due to excessive acquisition of or difficulty discarding possessions, regardless of their actual value. Excessive acquisition is characterized by repetitive urges or behaviours related to amassing or buying items. Difficulty discarding possessions is characterized by a perceived need to save items and distress associated with discarding them. Accumulation of possessions results in living spaces becoming cluttered to the point that their use or safety is compromised. The symptoms result in significant distress or significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning.

Hoarding Intentional accumulation of items for later use

Hoarding is a behavior where people or animals accumulate food or other items.

Scrupulosity is characterized by pathological guilt/anxiety about moral or religious issues. It is more commonly known as religious anxiety. It is personally distressing, dysfunctional, and often accompanied by significant impairment in social functioning. It has not been proven to be an actual disorder by medical professionals, though it falls under the anxiety category. It is typically conceptualized as a moral or religious form of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), The term is derived from the Latin scrupulum, a sharp stone, implying a stabbing pain on the conscience. Scrupulosity was formerly called scruples in religious contexts, but the word scruple now commonly refers to a troubling of the conscience rather than to the disorder.

An intrusive thought is an unwelcome, involuntary thought, image, or unpleasant idea that may become an obsession, is upsetting or distressing, and can feel difficult to manage or eliminate. When such thoughts are associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), and sometimes attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the thoughts may become paralyzing, anxiety-provoking, or persistent. Intrusive thoughts may also be associated with episodic memory, unwanted worries or memories from OCD, post-traumatic stress disorder, other anxiety disorders, eating disorders, or psychosis. Intrusive thoughts, urges, and images are of inappropriate things at inappropriate times, and generally have aggressive, sexual, or blasphemous themes.

The Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) is a test to rate the severity of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms.

Edna B. Foa Israeli psychologist

Edna Foa is an Israeli professor of clinical psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she serves as the director of the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety. Foa is an internationally renowned authority in the field of psychopathology and treatment of anxiety. She approaches the understanding and treatment of mental disorders from a cognitive-behavioral perspective.

Exposure therapy is a technique in behavior therapy to treat anxiety disorders. Exposure therapy involves exposing the target patient to the anxiety source or its context without the intention to cause any danger. Doing so is thought to help them overcome their anxiety or distress. Procedurally, it is similar to the fear extinction paradigm developed for studying laboratory rodents. Numerous studies have demonstrated its effectiveness in the treatment of disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and specific phobias.

Obsessive–compulsive disorder Disorder that involves repeated thoughts that make a person feel driven to do something

Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental and behavioral disorder in which a person has intrusive thoughts and/or feels the need to perform certain routines repeatedly to the extent where it induces distress or impairs general function. As indicated by the disorder's name, the primary symptoms of OCD are obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are persistent unwanted thoughts, mental images, or urges that generate feelings of anxiety, disgust, or unease. Common obsessions include fear of contamination, obsession with symmetry, and intrusive thoughts about religion, sex, and harm. Compulsions are repeated actions or routines that occur in response to obsessions. Common compulsions include excessive hand washing, cleaning, arranging things, counting, seeking reassurance, and checking things. Many adults with OCD are aware that their compulsions do not make sense, but they perform them anyway to relieve the distress caused by obsessions. Compulsions occur so often, typically taking up at least one hour per day, that they impair one's quality of life.

Stanley Jack Rachman was a psychologist and Professor Emeritus of the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Adam Scott Radomsky is a Canadian psychologist who studies obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and related anxiety disorders. He is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, and is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry.

David F. Tolin, Ph.D. is an American clinical psychologist.

Richard McNally Professor of Psychology

Richard J. McNally is a Professor and the Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. As a clinical psychologist and experimental psychopathologist, he studies anxiety disorders and related syndromes.

In psychology, relationship obsessive–compulsive disorder (ROCD) is a form of obsessive–compulsive disorder focusing on close or intimate relationships. Such obsessions can become extremely distressing and debilitating, having negative impacts on relationships functioning.

The University of Florida Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Program is a treatment and research clinic in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Florida. The clinic is located in Gainesville, Florida.

Jonathan Abramowitz American clinical psychologist

Jonathan Stuart Abramowitz is an American clinical psychologist and Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). He is an authority on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety disorders whose work is highly cited. He maintains a research lab and serves as the Director of the UNC-CH Anxiety and Stress Disorders Clinic. Abramowitz approaches the understanding and treatment of psychological problems from a cognitive-behavioral perspective.

The Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DOCS) is a 20-item self-report instrument that assesses the severity of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) symptoms along four empirically supported theme-based dimensions: (a) contamination, (b) responsibility for harm and mistakes, (c) incompleteness/symmetry, and (d) unacceptable (taboo) thoughts. The scale was developed in 2010 by a team of experts on OCD led by Jonathan Abramowitz, PhD to improve upon existing OCD measures and advance the assessment and understanding of OCD. The DOCS contains four subscales that have been shown to have good reliability, validity, diagnostic sensitivity, and sensitivity to treatment effects in a variety of settings cross-culturally and in different languages. As such, the DOCS meets the needs of clinicians and researchers who wish to measure current OCD symptoms or assess changes in symptoms over time.

John Piacentini, PhD, ABPP, is an American clinical child and adolescent psychologist, and professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in Los Angeles, California. He is the director of the Center for Child Anxiety, Resilience, Education and Support (CARES), and the Child OCD, Anxiety and Tic Disorders Program at UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.

Inference-based therapy (IBT) originated as a form of cognitive therapy developed for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder. IBT followed the observation that people with OCD often inferred danger on the basis of inverse inference. Later the model was extended to inferential confusion, where inverse inference leads to distrust of the senses and investment in remote possibility. In this model, individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder are hypothesized to put a greater emphasis on an imagined possibility than on what can be perceived with the senses, and to confuse the imagined possibility with reality. According to inference-based therapy, obsessional thinking occurs when the person replaces reality and real probabilities with imagined possibilities; the obsession is hypothesize to concern a doubt about a possible state of affairs.

References

  1. 1 2 "Two Black Scholars Appointed to Endowed Chairs at Vanderbilt University in Nashville". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. 2020-03-06. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  2. ↑ "University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville / ALLUA". library.uark.edu. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  3. ↑ "The Emotion & Anxiety Research Laboratory (EARL) at Vanderbilt University - Personnel". www.psy.vanderbilt.edu. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  4. 1 2 Communications, Vanderbilt Division of. "Olatunji appointed associate dean of academic affairs at Graduate School". Vanderbilt University. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  5. ↑ "Medical Staff Directory". Rogers Behavioral Health. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  6. ↑ "The Emotion & Anxiety Research Laboratory (EARL) at Vanderbilt University - Personnel". www.psy.vanderbilt.edu. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  7. ↑ "Bunmi Olatunji, Ph.D. - Vanderbilt Kennedy Center People". vkc.mc.vanderbilt.edu. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  8. 1 2 "Psychological predictors of anxiety in response to the H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic". psycnet.apa.org. Retrieved 2020-07-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. 1 2 3 4 Olatunji, Olubunmi. "Disgust Learning as a Distinct OCD Endophenotype".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. ↑ Blackford, Jennifer; Olatunji, Olubunmi. "BNST neurocircuitry in PTSD".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. ↑ "Bunmi O. Olatunji, PhD". UW Department of Psychiatry. 1307. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  12. ↑ "A Trio of Black Scholars Who Are Taking on New Assignments". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. 2019-10-25. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  13. ↑ "APA PsycNet". psycnet.apa.org. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
  14. ↑ "Stephen S. Ilardi, PhD, Theodore Blau Early Achievement Award". 2001. doi:10.1037/e533162009-008.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. ↑ "APA PsycNet". psycnet.apa.org. Retrieved 2020-07-28.
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