Suzanne Phelan, PhD

    Assistant Professor,
    Dept. of Psychiatry & Human Behavior
    Brown Medical School 

    Staff Psychologist, 
    The Miriam Hospital

Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine
Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center
196 Richmond Street
Providence, RI 02903
Phone: (401) 793-5591  (401) 793-5570
Email:  sphelan@lifespan.org
Fax: (401) 793-5588

Suzanne Phelan, PhD is an assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown Medical School and The Miriam Hospital.  She earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado and earned her master's degree and PhD in Clinical and Health Psychology (2001) from MCP Hahnemann University. She completed her internship in Behavioral Medicine at Brown University. Phelan was a postdoctoral research fellow with Rena Wing, PhD, prior to becoming a faculty member at Brown.  Her principal research is on the treatment of obesity by interventions that include behavior modification and medications. She is co-principal investigator of the National Weight Control Registry, which is an ongoing longitudinal study evaluating over 4,000 successful weight losers. Phelan is also conducting a one-year investigation of the effects of a contingency-based behavioral treatment program for obesity.

National Weight Control Registry
Rena Wing, PhD (PI), Suzanne Phelan, PhD  (Co-I)

The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) established by Wing and Hill in 1993 has been extremely useful in increasing understanding of weight loss maintenance. The registry has over 4,000 individuals who have lost at least thirty lbs. (mean = 66 lbs.) and kept it off at least one year (mean = 6 years). The overall aim of this project is to improve data collection procedures in the NWCR to make this unique resource more valuable for studies of long-term weight loss maintenance.

Brownell, K.D., Wadden, T.A., & Phelan, S.  (in press).  Obesity. In Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry.  Sadock ,B. & Sadock, V. (Eds.). Lippincott, Williams & Wilkens.

Foster, G.D., & Phelan, S.  (2001).  Environmental challenges and assessment social models.  In Carolyn Berndanier (Ed.), CRC Handbook of Food and Nutrition Assessment Section.  Atlanta: CRC. 773-785.

Foster,G.D., Wadden, T.A., Phelan, S., & Swain, R.  (2001).  Obese patients' perceptions of treatment outcomes and the factors that influence them. Archives of Internal Medicine 161(17):2133-2139.

Lowe, M.R., Miller-Kovach, K., & Phelan, S.  (2001).  Weight-loss maintenance in overweight individuals one to five years following successful completion of a commercial weight loss program.  International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 25(3):325-31.

Phelan, S., & Wadden, T.A.  (2002).  Combining behavioral and pharmacologic treatments for obesity.  Obesity Research, 10:560-574.

Phelan, S., & Wadden, T.A. (2002). Psychosocial co-morbidities of obesity and dieting. In Obesity: An Academic Basis for Clinical Evaluation and Treatment.  Eckel R.H. (Ed.) Lippincott, Williams & Wilkens: 358-377.

Phelan, S., & Wing, R.R.  (2003).  Treatment approaches for obesity. In Fulfilling the Potential for Cancer Prevention and Early Detection: National Cancer Policy Board's Report.  Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

Wadden, T.A., & Phelan, S.  (2002).  Assessment of quality of life in obese individuals. Obesity Research Nov;10, Suppl 1:50S-7S.

Wadden, T.A. & Phelan, S.  (2002).  Behavioral evaluation of the obese patient.  In Handbook of Obesity Treatment. Wadden & Stunkard (Eds).  New York: Guilford: 186-228.

Wing, R.R., Phelan, S., & Tate, D.  (2002).  The role of adherence in mediating the relationship between depression and health outcomes.  Journal of Psychosomatic Research 53; 877-881.