Kathryn Cullen, MD

I completed my medical training at the University of Minnesota including medical school, psychiatry residency and child/adolescent psychiatry fellowship. I have also completed a T32 research fellowship through the Center of Neurobehavioral Development. I currently co-direct the Early Stage Mood Disorders (child and adolescent arm) clinic with Dr. David Bond MD, PhD, and co-direct the Research on Adolescent Depression laboratory (RAD Lab) with Bonnie Klimes-Dougan, Ph.D. (Psychology).

I am a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and the Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division at the University of Minnesota. My work focuses on depression and non-suicidal self-injury; bipolar disorder; borderline personality disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder in adolescents. I have close to 100 publications, with many as first or last author, 1539 citations, with an h-index of 20. I have also presented both nationally and internationally at over 175 conferences.

I am an active member of the Center for Neurobehavioral Development and the Institute of Engineering in Medicine, and have an adjunct appointment in the Graduate Program for Neuroscience.

I was named in Minnesota Medicine’s Top Doctors for 2017 and 2018 and received a NAMI Exemplary Psychiatrist Award in 2020. Within the university, I was awarded CTSI Mentor of the Year in 2018.

• NAMI Exemplary Psychiatrist Award, 2020
• CTSI Mentor of the Year, 2018
• Minnesota Medicine Top Doctors, 2017 and 2018 

Local

• Institute for Engineering in Medicine, Faculty Member 2015-present
• Center for Neurobehavioral Development, Faculty Member 2006-present
• Graduate Program in Neuroscience, Faculty Member 2017-present

National

• CPDD Study Section 2019-present
• American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Associate Member 2016-present
• American Association of Directors of Child and Adolescent Member, 2016-present
• Biological Psychiatry, Member 2009-present
• American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Member 2006-present

International

• International Society for the Study of Self-Injury 2018- present 

Dr. Cullen's research primarily focuses on depression and self-injury in adolescents. Her research approaches include the use of brain imaging to examine the biology of depression and self-harm, elucidate the mechanisms of existing treatments, and develop novel treatments.

NIMH R01MH107394 "A Longitudinal Study Examining Three RDoC Constructs in Adolescents with Non-Suicidal Self-Injury" NCCIH R61AT009995 "Identifying Biological Signatures of N-acetylcysteine for Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in Adolescents" Clinical Translational Research Services (CTRS) "Mindful Breathing and Neuromodulation for Depression in Young People" University of Minnesota Office of Academic Affairs "Tackling the Wicked Problem of Adolescent Mental Illness Through Art"

Original Refereed Research Papers

1. Scola G, McNamara RK, Croarkin PE, Leffler JM, Cullen KR, Geske JR, Biernacka JM, Frye MA, DelBello MP, Andreazza AC.Lipid peroxidation biomarkers in adolescents with or at high-risk for bipolar disorder.J Affect Disord. 2016 Mar 1;192:176-83.
2. Sommerfeldt SL, Cullen KR, Han G, Fryza BJ, Houri AK, Klimes-Dougan B. Executive Attention Impairment in Adolescents With Major Depressive Disorder. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2015 Nov 13:1-15. [Epub ahead of print]
3. Bernstein, G.A., Mueller, B.A., Westlund, M.K., Campbell, S.M., Regan, E.K., Nelson, P.M., Houri, A.K. Lee, S.S., Zagoloff, A.D., Lim, K.O., Yacoub, E.S. & Cullen, K.R.Abnormal striatal resting-state functional connectivity in adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder.Psychiatry Research:Neuroimaging. 2016 Jan 30;247:49-56
4. Musgrove, D., Eberly, L.E., Klimes-Dougan, B., Basgoze, Z., Mueller, B.A., Lim, K.O., & Cullen, K.R. Impaired Bottom-Up Effective Connectivity Between Amygdala and Subgenual Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Unmedicated Adolescents with Major Depression: Results from a Dynamic Causal Modeling Analysis Revision.Brain Connectivity.2015 Dec;5(10):608-192015 Dec;5(10):608-19
5. Cullen, K.R., LaRiviere, L., Vizueta,N., Hunt, R., Miller, M.J., Lim, K.O., & Schulz, S.C.Brain Activation in Response to Overt and Covert Fear and Happy Faces in Women with Borderline Personality Disorder.Brain Imaging and Behavior.2015; May 26 [epub ahead of print].
6. Donoghue, A., Roback, M.,Cullen, K.R.Remission from Behavioral Dysregulation in a Child with PTSD After Receiving Procedural Ketamine.Pediatrics.2015 Sep;136(3):e694-6
7. Kennedy, K., Cullen, K.R., DeYoung, C., & Klimes-Dougan, B.The Genetics of Early-Onset Bipolar Disorder: A Systematic Review.Journal of Affective Disorders. 2015 Sep 15;184:1-12.
8. Klimes-Dougan, B., Eberly, L.E., Westlund, M.K., Kurkiewicz, P., Houri, A., Schlesinger, A., Thomas, K.M., Mueller, B.A., Lim,K.O., & Cullen, K.R.Multilevel assessment of the neurobiological threat system in depressed adolescents: Interplay between the limbic system and HPA axis. Development and Psychopathology.2014; 26(4 Pt 2):1321-35
9. Cullen, K.R., Westlund, M., Klimes-Dougan, B., Mueller, B.A., Houri, A., Eberly, & L.E., Lim, K.O. Abnormal Amygdala Resting -State Functional Connectivity in Adolescent Depression. JAMA Psychiatry 2014; 71(10)1138-47
10. Hall, L.M., Klimes-Dougan, B., Hunt, R.H., Thomas, K.M., Houri, A, Noack, E, Mueller, B.A., Lim, K.O., & Cullen, K.R.An fMRI study of emotional face processing in adolescent major depression. J Affect Disord. 2014; 168:44-50
11. Hulvershorn, LA., Cullen, K.R., Francis, M., & Westlund, M. Developmental Resting State Functional Connectivity for Clinicians. Current Behavioral Neuroscience Rep. 2014; 1(3):161-169
12. Cullen, K.R., Eberly, L.E., Heller, M.D., Schlesinger, A., Gold, P.W., Martinez, P.E., & Klimes-Dougan, B.Personality Disorders in offspring of mothers with mood disorders: Results from a longitudinal family study. Psychiatry Research. 2014; 218(3)303-10
13. Epstein K.A., Cullen K.R., Mueller B.A., Robinson P., Lee S., & Kumra S. White matter abnormalities and cognitive impairment in early-onset schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2014; 53(3):362-372
14. Schulz, S. Charles, Camchong, J., Romine, A., Schlesinger, A., Kuskowski, M., Pardo, J.V., Cullen, K.R., & Lim, K.O. An exploratory study of the relationship of symptom domains and diagnostic severity to PET scan imaging in borderline personality disorder. Psychiatry Res. 2013; 214(2):161-168. PMID: 24011393
15. Klimes-Dougan, B., Desjardins, C.D., James, M.G., Narajan, A.J., Long, J.D., Cullen, K.R., Gold, P.W., & Martinez, P.E. The development of thought problems: A longitudinal family risk study of offspring of bipolar parents.Developmental Psychopathology. 2013;25:1079-1091. PMID: 24229550.
16. Gunlicks-Stoessel, M., Mufson, L., Cullen, K.R., & Klimes-Dougan, B.A pilot study of depressed adolescents' cortisol patterns during parent-adolescent conflict and response to interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT-A).Journal of Affective Disorders. 2013; 150(3):1125-1128.
17. Walczak, N., Fasching, J., Toczysk,i W., Sivalingam, R., Bir,d N., Cullen, K., Morellas, V., Murphy, B., Sapiro, G., & Papanikolopoulos, N.A nonintrusive system for behavioral analysis of children using multiple RGB+depth sensors.Proceedings of IEEE Workshop on Applications of Computer Vision.2012;pp.217-222
18. Sivalingam, R., Cherian, A., Fasching, J., Walczak, N., Bird, N., Morellas, V., Murphy, B., Cullen, K., Lim, K., Sapiro, G., & Papanikolopoulos, N. A multi-sensor visual tracking system for behavior monitoring of at-risk children.Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.2012; pp.1345-1350.
19. Cullen, K.R., Wallace, S., Magnotta, V.A., Bockholt, J., Erlich, S., Gollub, R.L., Manoach, D., Ho, B.C., Clark, V., Lauriello, J., Bustillo, J.R.,Schulz, S.C., Andreasen, N.A., Calhoun, V.D.,Lim, K.O., & White, T.J.Cigarette Smoking and White Matter Microstructure in Schizophrenia.Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging. 2012;201(2):152-158
20. Han, G., Klimes-Dougan, B., Ballard, K., Jepson, S., Nelson, M., Houri, A. Kumra, S., & Cullen, K.Selective Neurocognitive impairments in adolescents with major depressive disorder.Journal of Adolescence. 2012; 35(1):11-20
21. Fasching, J., Walczak, N., Sivalingam, R., Cullen, K., Murphy, B., Sapiro, G., Morellas, V. & Papanikolopoulos, N. Detecting risk-markers in children in a preschool classroom.Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems 01/2012 978-1-4673-1737-5
22. Cullen, K.R., Vizueta, N.V., Thomas, K.M., Han, G., Lim, K.O., Camchong, J., Mueller, B.A., Heller, M., Bell, C.H., & Schulz, S.C.Amygdala Functional Connectivity in Young Women with Borderline Personality Disorder.Brain Connectivity.2012; 1(1):61-71
23. Cullen, K.R., Anjum, A., Guimaraes, A., Wozniak J., Schulz, S.C., & White, T.J.Differential Trajectories of the Schizophrenia Prodrome:Social Withdrawal and Cognitive Decline. Clinical Schizophrenia and Related Psychoses.2012; 4(4):229-238
24. Cullen, K.R., Klimes-Dougan B.,Muetzel, R., Mueller, B.A., Camchong, J., Houri, A., Kumra S., C., & Lim, K.O.Altered White Matter Microstructure in Adolescents with Major Depression:A Preliminary Study.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.2010; 49(2):173-183
25. Cullen, K.R., Gee, D., Klimes-Dougan, B., Kumra, S., Hulvershorn, L., Mueller, B., Camchong, J., Bell, C., Lim, K.O., Castellanos, F.X., & Milham, M.A Preliminary Study of Functional Connectivity in Comorbid Adolescent Depression. Neuroscience Letters.2009; 460(3):227-231
26. Kumra, S., Kranzler, H., Gerbino-Rosen, G.,Kester, H., DeThomas, C., Cullen, K.R., Regan, J.T., & Kane, J.Clozapine vs. “High-Dose” Olanzapine in Refractory Early-Onset Schizophrenia: An Open-Label Extension Study.Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology.2008; 18(4):307-16

Refereed Review Papers

1. Westlund Schreiner M, Klimes-Dougan B, Begnel ED, Cullen KR. Conceptualizing the neurobiology of non-suicidal self-injury from the perspective of the Research Domain Criteria Project. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2015 Oct;57:381-91.
2. Cullen, K.R., Westlund, M.K., LaRiviere, L.L., & Klimes-Dougan, B.An Adolescent With Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: A Case and Discussion of Neurobiological Research on Emotion Regulation. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2013; 170(8):828-831
3. Narayan, A., Allen, T., Cullen, K.R., & Klimes-Dougan, B. Disturbances in reality testing as markers of risk in offspring of bipolar parents: a systematic review from a developmental psychopathology perspective.Bipolar Disorders.2013; 15(7):723-740
4. Hulvershorn, L.A., Cullen, K.R., & Anand, A. Toward Dysfunctional connectivity: a review of neuroimaging findings in pediatric major depressive disorder.Brain Imaging and Behavior. 2011; 5(4):11-20.
5. Cullen, K.R., Klimes-Dougan, B., Kumra, S., & Scultz, S.C.Pediatric Major Depressive Disorder:Neurobiology and Implications for Early Intervention.Early Intervention in Psychiatry. 2009; 3:178-188.
6. White, T.J., Cullen, K.R., Rohrer, L.M., Karatekin, C., Luciana, M., Schmidt, M., Hongwanishkul, D., Kumra, S., Scultz, S.C., & Lim K.O.Limbic Structures and Networks in Children and Adolescents with Schizophrenia.Schizophrenia Bulletin. 2008;34 (1):18-29

Invited Editorials or Commentaries

1. Cullen, K.R., & Lim, K.O.Toward Understanding the Functional Relevance of White Matter Deficits in Bipolar Disorder.JAMA Psychiatry. 2014; 71(4):362-364
2. Cullen, K.R.Imaging adolescent depression treatment.Am J Psychiatry. 2012; 169(4):348-350