Kim L. Gratz

Picture of Kim Gratz PhD, University of Massachusetts Boston, 2003
Affiliated Psychology Faculty

Dr. Gratz's CV can be viewed here.

Background

Dr. Gratz is an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toledo. Dr. Gratz received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2003, following completion of her pre-doctoral internship training (with an emphasis on the treatment of borderline personality disorder) at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School. After being awarded the Psychosocial Fellowship from McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School in July 2003, she served as a Clinical and Research Fellow in the Center for the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder at McLean Hospital from 2003-04, and an Assistant Research Psychologist in this program from 2004-05. In 2005, Dr. Gratz joined the Clinical Psychology Program at the University of Maryland (where she served as Director of the Personality Disorders Division of the Center for Addictions, Personality and Emotion Research for three years). In 2008, Dr. Gratz joined the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC). While at UMMC, Dr. Gratz served as the Director of the Division of Gender, Sexuality, and Health, as well as Director of both Personality Disorders Research and the Dialectical Behavior Therapy Clinic. Dr. Gratz received the Young Investigator’s Award of the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder (NEA-BPD) in 2005 and the Mid-Career Investigator Award of the North American Society for the Study of Personality Disorders in 2015. She has been continuously funded since 2003 (with continuous federal funding as PI since 2008), serving as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on 10 federal grants examining BPD, self-injury, emotion dysregulation, substance use, and/or mother-child relationships.

Research Interests

Dr. Gratz's laboratory and treatment outcome research focuses on the role of emotion dysregulation in borderline personality disorder (BPD), self-injury, and other risky behaviors (including suicidal behaviors, substance misuse, and risky sexual behaviors). In particular, her research focuses on understanding the nature and consequences of emotional dysregulation in these conditions (through the use of novel behavioral/experimental paradigms), and applying this understanding to the development of more effective treatments. Her work in this area has clarified the role of emotion regulation difficulties and other emotion-related mechanisms in BPD and related risky behaviors, particularly self-injury, suicide, substance use, and disordered eating, and resulted in the development of an efficacious treatment for self-injury among women with BPD (i.e., emotion regulation group therapy; ERGT). More recently, she has become interested in treatment dissemination, collaborating with colleagues in the United States and abroad to disseminate ERGT to community clinicians. Finally, in the past few years, Dr. Gratz has become increasingly interested in examining the intergenerational transmission of BPD-related personality traits and emotion regulation difficulties from mothers to their offspring. Her work in this area has helped clarify the factors involved in the transmission of risk from mothers with BPD to their children, with an emphasis on both mother and infant emotion-related difficulties.

Recent and ongoing projects include: a laboratory study examining the role of emotional relief, interpersonal, and self-punishment motives for self-injury in predicting self-injury urges and behaviors in a 2-week ecological momentary assessment design and long-term follow-up; examining the efficacy, effectiveness, and underlying mechanisms of ERGT among women with borderline personality pathology in the United States and Sweden; a laboratory-based study of BPD-relevant personality traits and emotion regulation capacity among women and their infants; development of a structured interview for assessing DSM-5 NSSID; an examination of the personality traits and underlying processes associated with borderline personality symptoms in youth; and a longitudinal laboratory-based investigation of emotion regulation as a prospective predictor of sexual revictimization and its proximal risk factors.

Selected Publications

Gratz, K. L., Chapman, A. L., Dixon-Gordon, K. L., & Tull, M. T. (2016). Exploring the association of deliberate self-harm with emotional relief using a novel Implicit Association Test. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 7, 91-102.

Gratz, K. L., Bardeen, J. R., Levy, R., Dixon-Gordon, K. L., & Tull, M. T. (2015). Mechanisms of change in an emotion regulation group therapy for deliberate self-harm among women with borderline personality disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 65, 29-35.

Gratz, K. L., Dixon-Gordon, K. L., Chapman, A. L., & Tull, M. T. (2015). Diagnosis and characterization of DSM-5 nonsuicidal self-injury disorder using the Clinician-Administered Nonsuicidal Self-injury Disorder Index. Assessment, 22, 527-539.

Gratz, K. L., Kiel, E. J., Latzman, R. D., Moore, S. A., Elkin, T. D., Megason, G. C., & Tull, M. T. (2015). Complex interrelations of trait vulnerabilities in mothers and their infants. Infancy, 20, 306-338.

Gratz, K. L., Dixon-Gordon, K. L., & Tull, M. T. (2014). Predictors of treatment response to an adjunctive emotion regulation group therapy for deliberate self-harm among women with borderline personality disorder. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 5, 97-107.

Gratz, K. L., Kiel, E. J., Latzman, R. D., Elkin, T. D., Moore, S. A., & Tull, M. T. (2014). Maternal borderline personality pathology and infant emotion regulation: Examining the influence of maternal emotion-related difficulties and infant attachment. Journal of Personality Disorders, 28, 52-69.

Gratz, K. L., Tull, M. T., & Levy, R. (2014). Randomized controlled trial and uncontrolled 9-month follow-up of an adjunctive emotion regulation group therapy for deliberate self-harm among women with borderline personality disorder. Psychological Medicine, 44, 2099-2112.

Gratz, K.L., Latzman, R.D., Young, J. Heiden, L.J., Damon, J.D., Hight, T.L., & Tull, M.T. (2012). Deliberate self-harm among community adolescents in an underserved area: Exploring the moderating roles of gender, race, and school-level and association with borderline personality features. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 3, 39-54.

Kiel, E.J., Gratz, K.L., Moore, S.A., Latzman, R.D., & Tull, M.T. (2011). The impact of borderline personality pathology on mothers' responses to infant distress. Journal of Family Psychology, 25, 907-918.

Current Grants

"Implicit Measurement of Motivations for Non-Suicidal Self-Injury"
Principal Investigators: Alexander Chapman, PhD and Kim L. Gratz, PhD
Agency: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Neurosciences, Mental Health, and Addiction)
Type: Operating Grant 343892
Period: July 31, 2015 - July 30, 2019
Total subcontract costs: $307,486 (Canadian)

“A Biopsychosocial Model of Emotion Processes Determining the Role of Overcontrolling Parenting in the Stability of Inhibited Temperament”
Principal Investigator: Elizabeth J. Kiel, PhD
Co-Investigator: Kim L. Gratz, PhD
Agency: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Type and number: R15 HD076158
Period: May 1, 2013 - April 30, 2016 (no cost extension through April 30, 2017)
Total subcontract costs: $78,730

“Nonsuicidal Self-Injury in Veterans”
Principal Investigator: Nathan A. Kimbrel, PhD
Role on Project: Consultant
Agency: Clinical Science Research and Development Service of the Department of Veterans Affairs
Type and Number: Merit Award 1I01CX001486
Period: January 1, 2017 – December 31, 2020
Total direct costs: $990,000

Past Grants

"Genetics in the Relation between PTSD and Trauma Cue-Evoked Attentional Bias"
Principal Investigator: Matthew T. Tull, PhD
Co-Investigator: Kim L. Gratz, PhD
Agency: NIH/NIGMS-Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience (University of Mississippi Medical Center) COBRE
Period: October 15, 2015 - July 1, 2016
Total direct costs: $50,000

“Emotion Regulation and Self-harm in Borderline Personality Disorder”
Principal Investigators: Alexander Chapman, PhD and Kim L. Gratz, PhD
Agency: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Neurosciences, Mental Health, and Addiction)
Type and Number: Operating Grant 222112
Period: October 1, 2010 – September 30, 2014 (no-cost extension through September 30, 2015)
Total subcontract costs: $341,675 (Canadian)

“Sexual Revictimization: Emotional and Psychosocial Mediators”
Principal Investigator: David DiLillo, PhD
Role on Project: Co-Investigator (with subcontract to UMMC)
Agency: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Type and Number: R01 HD062226
Period: July 15, 2010 – June 30, 2015 (no-cost extension through June 30, 2016)
Total subcontract costs: $682,500

“The Acute Alcohol-Suicide Attempt Relation as a Function of Alcohol Dependence”
Principal Investigator: Courtney Bagge, PhD
Co-Investigator: Kim L. Gratz, PhD
Agency: National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Type and number: R21 AA020017
Period: August 1, 2012 - July 31, 2014 (no cost extension until July 31, 2015)
Total direct costs: $215,000

“Effects of Maternal Interpretation Biases on Child Anxiety and Related Responses”
Principal Investigator: Andres G. Viana, PhD
Co-Investigators: Matthew T. Tull, PhD, and Kim L. Gratz, PhD
Agency: National Institute of Mental Health
Type and number: R21 MH101309
Proposed duration: May 1, 2014 - April 30, 2016
Total direct costs: $275,000

"Risk-Taking Following Trauma Cue Exposure in Substance Users with PTSD"
Principal Investigator: Matthew T. Tull, PhD
Co-Investigator: Kim L. Gratz, PhD
Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Type and number: R21 DA030587
Period: July 14, 2011 - May 31, 2013
Total direct costs: $275,000

"Developing an Emotion Regulation Group Therapy for Self-Harm among Women with BPD"
Principal Investigator: Kim L. Gratz, PhD
Co-Investigator: Matthew T. Tull, PhD
Agency: National Institute of Mental Health
Type and number: R34 MH079248
Period: Sept. 10, 2008 - May 31, 2011
Total direct costs: $450,000

"PTSD and Predictors of Drug Use Treatment Drop-Out"
Principal Investigator: Matthew T. Tull, PhD
Co-Investigator: Kim L. Gratz, PhD
Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Type and number: R21 DA022383
Period: April 1, 2007 - March 31, 2009
Total direct costs: $275,000

“Development of a Brief Adjunctive Group Therapy Targeting Risky Sexual Behaviors among Substance Users in Residential Treatment”
Principal Investigators: Matthew T. Tull, PhD, and Kim L. Gratz, PhD
Agency: Mississippi Department of Health
Type: Research Support Grant
Period: July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2010
Total direct costs: $66,264

"Psychopathology of Child Anxiety: Temperament, Cognitive, and Parental Influences"
Principal Investigator: Andres G. Viana, PhD
Co-Investigator: Matthew T. Tull, PhD, and Kim L. Gratz, PhD
Agency: University of Mississippi Medical Center
Type: Intramural Research Support Program Grant
Period: May 1, 2012 - April 30, 2013
Total direct costs: $29,663

"Serotonin, Impulsivity, and Suicide Attempts"
Principal Investigator: Courtney L. Bagge, PhD
Collaborators: Kim L. Gratz, PhD, and Matthew T. Tull, PhD
Agency: NIH/NCRR-Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience (University of Mississippi Medical Center) COBRE
Period: August 1, 2010 - July 31, 2012
Total direct costs: $100,000

"Alcohol and Suicide Attempts: A Case-Crossover Pilot Study"
Principal Investigator: Courtney L. Bagge, PhD
Co-Investigator: Kim L. Gratz, PhD
Agency: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
Type: Pilot Research Grant
Period: November 1, 2010 - October 30, 2012
Total direct costs: $30,000

Please visit the Personality and Emotion Research and Treatment (PERT) Laboratory to learn more!