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About

Thomas Rutledge, Ph.D., is a Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego. As a researcher, Dr. Rutledge has authored more than 100 journal articles and book chapters in scientific publications and been an investigator on dozens of federally funded grants from the National Institute of Health, Department of Defense, and Department of Veterans Affairs. His work focuses on behavioral and psychological treatments for chronic medical conditions such as heart disease, obesity, chronic pain, and diabetes. As a practitioner, Dr. Rutledge is a staff psychologist at the VA San Diego Healthcare System where he directs behavioral medicine services for Veterans receiving care in the weight control, diabetes, and pain clinics. He has also been board certified as a clinical health psychologist by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) since 2010. Dr. Rutledge is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD. He received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Alaska, Anchorage in 1994, and subsequently completed Master’s and Doctoral studies in clinical psychology at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Rutledge completed his clinical internship at the Toronto Hospital, and later completed postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh in their Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine fellowship program. He currently works in the VA Medical Center in La Jolla. His research focuses on the overlap between mental health and chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, and chronic pain. Dr. Rutledge is a behavioral medicine researcher focusing on the overlap between mental health and chronic illness and developing behavioral treatments for chronic disease management. His recent funded research activity includes clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of cognitive behavioral treatments for chronic pain, nutritional interventions for obesity, and meditation and tai chi interventions for conditions such as PTSD and heart failure

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Skills

Experience

Professor in Psychiatry

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

Jan-2010 to Present

Publication

  • dott image September, 2013

Anginal Symptoms, Coronary Artery Disease, and Adverse Outcomes in Black and White Women: The NHLBI-Sponsored Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WI...

Background: Black women are less likely to be evaluated and treated for anginal symptoms, despite a higher premature cardiac mortality rate compared to white women. Our objective was to comp...

  • dott image February, 2012

Relationships Between Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and Depressive Symptoms as Predictors of Cardiovascular Disease Events in Women

Background: Modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) account for much of the variability in CVD outcomes and are also related to psychosocial variables. There is evidence tha...

Self-Rated Versus Objective Health Indicators as Predictors of Major Cardiovascular Events: The NHLBI-Sponsored Women’s Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation

Objective: To determine the association between self-rated health and major cardiovascular events in a sample of women with suspected myocardial ischemia. Previous studies showed that self...

  • dott image December, 2009

Psychotropic medication use and risk of adverse cardiovascular events in women with suspected coronary artery disease: outcomes from the Women’s Isc...

Objective: This study investigated the relation between psychotropic medication use and adverse cardiovascular (CV) events in women with symptoms of myocardial ischaemia undergoing coronary ...

  • dott image November, 2009

Comorbid Depression and Anxiety Symptoms as Predictors of Cardiovascular Events: Results From the NHLBI-Sponsored Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation...

Objective: To study the independent and interactive effects of depression and anxiety symptoms as predictors of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in a sample of women with suspected myoc...

Depressive Symptom Dimensions and Cardiovascular Prognosis Among Women With Suspected Myocardial Ischemia: A Report From the National Heart, Lung, and...

Context Symptoms of depression and cardiovascular disease (CVD) overlap substantially. Differentiating between dimensions of depressive symptoms may improve our understanding of the relatio...

  • dott image January, 2009

Depression and Cardiovascular Health Care Costs Among Women With Suspected Myocardial Ischemia: Prospective Results From the WISE (Women's Ischemia Sy...

Objectives: This study evaluated 3 novel questions in a prospective clinical cohort of women undergoing evaluation for suspected myocardial ischemia: 1) What is the relationship between dep...

Social Networks and Incident Stroke Among Women With Suspected Myocardial Ischemia

Objective: To describe the prospective relationship between social networks and nonfatal stroke events in a sample of women with suspected myocardial ischemia. Social networks are an indep...

  • dott image January, 2008

Depression, the Metabolic Syndrome and Cardiovascular Risk

Background: The relationship between depression and the metabolic syndrome is unclear, and whether metabolic syndrome explains the association between depression and cardiovascular disease...

  • dott image November, 2007

Depression, Inflammation, and Incident Cardiovascular Disease in Women With Suspected Coronary Ischemia: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute...

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine prospectively whether inflammation explains the relationship between depression and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Background: It is un...