eating disorders

Eating disorders are characterised by an abnormal attitude towards food that causes someone to change their eating habits and behaviour. A person with an eating disorder may focus excessively on their weight and shape, leading them to make unhealthy choices about food with damaging results to their health. Eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge eating.

Our eating disorders Blogs

Anorexia in transition: from CAMHS to adult mental health services

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A small Danish qualitative study explores how young people with anorexia experience the shift from family-based treatment in CAMHS to adult mental health services.

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A stitch in time: early intervention for young people – promising but patchy evidence

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Two major reviews find early intervention shows promise for youth mental health, but the evidence is stronger for psychosis than for anxiety and depression.

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Growing up hungry: food insecurity’s lasting impact on eating

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Children who experienced food insecurity in early childhood had higher odds of binge eating and compensatory behaviours in adolescence, even when food insecurity resolved.

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Shared genetic patterns found across 14 psychiatric disorders

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Psychiatric disorders share genetic variants that cluster into five main factors. Understanding shared biology could improve treatment, but more diverse genetic data urgently needed.

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Anorexia recovery looks different for professionals and people with lived experience

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Qualitative study reveals gap between how lived experience individuals and professionals conceptualise anorexia recovery; particularly around weight restoration and residual symptoms.

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Mental health admissions to medical wards: 65% increase in a decade for young people

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Mental health admissions to acute medical wards rose 65% for young people in England (2012-2022), with eating disorder admissions up 515% and anxiety admissions doubling in 10 years. Self-harm admissions accounted for more than half of the total. Adolescent girls by far the biggest group affected.

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Body dissatisfaction in adolescence: does it cause eating disorders and depression later?

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Within-twin analyses supported the causal effects of body dissatisfaction during adolescence on eating disorder and depressive symptoms in young adulthood.

This twin study of nearly 14,000 UK adolescents found that body dissatisfaction at age 16 was linked to eating disorder symptoms at 21 and depression at 26. Comparing twins helped researchers show these were likely causal relationships, not just correlations, though genetics also played a substantial role.

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How common are eating disorders in adults seeking obesity treatment?

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Most of what we know about eating disorders in adults with obesity focuses on binge eating. But what about everything else? This new systematic review pulls together data from 94,000 adults to estimate how common different eating disorders and disordered eating behaviours really are among people seeking obesity treatment.

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Recovery, relapse, and genetic risk: what 10,000 Danes taught us about eating disorder trajectories

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How often do people with eating disorders switch diagnoses, recover, or relapse? This large Danish study follows more than 10,000 people over nearly a decade, uncovering patterns of remission and genetic vulnerability that could help shape more personalised care.

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GenAI chatbots can treat clinical level mental health symptoms

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With NHS services under strain, digital therapies are attracting more attention. This new study tested a generative AI chatbot in a national RCT and found significant clinical improvements. But are we ready for AI to join the therapy team?

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