Psychology /
Eating Disorders
Are you looking for the Eating Disorders website for families and health professionals: www.eatingresearch.com?
The Section of Eating Disorders aims to find out more about the neurobiological, genetic and psychological causes of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and other eating disorders, and to use that knowledge to develop new and better treatments.
Research is closely interwoven with clinical services run by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM), which serve a population of two million people in south-east London and take specialist referalls from throughout the UK. SLaM’s services include outpatient sevices based at the Bethlem Royal Hospital in Kent, the Maudsley Hospital and Guy’s Hospital; an inpatient unit at the Bethlem; there is also a day care service at the Bethlem, which supports people throughout recovery; and Denbridge House, a residential hostel in Bromley.
Many of the people referred to these services, and their families, participate in the Section’s plethora of research projects. Many of these research projects are conducted in collaboration with beat (formerly the Eating Disorders Association), the UK’s leading eating disorders charity.
Research participants take part in a variety of studies, ranging from brain imaging projects to help researchers find out more about hunger circuits and how they are affected by eating disorders, to projects searching for genetic factors that influence the development of anorexia nervosa. Participants also help in the development of new treatments: web-based treatments to help parents and carers offer support needed to aid recovery, for example, and a web-based self-help package based on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for young people with bulimia nervosa.
The Section runs a Volunteers Database and is always keen to hear from people with experience of an eating disorder as well as healthy volunteers. Email Frankie Bishopp if you are willing to join the database.
Funders of research include the Medical Research Council, the IoP-based Psychiatry Research Trust, the charity Research into Eating Disorders and the Department of Health: the Section has been awarded £2 million through the National Institute for Health Research for work on understanding more about anorexia nervosa and translating that understanding into treatment. The Section is also a collaborator in a major European Commission-funded project which focuses on improving health care for women with eating disorders and involves nine partners from eight European countries. INTACT (Individually Tailored Stepped Care for Women with Eating Disorders) is researching and developing individually tailored treatment by finding out more about the genetic, social and environmental risks involved in anorexia nervosa, bulimia and other eating disorders.
The Section organises training for health professionals about treatments for eating disorders, including Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, medical management, Motivational Interviewing and Cognitive Analytic Therapy. Training course dates and other Section of Eating Disorders-organised events are posted on the IoP website What’s On page.
The Section’s research teams are based at the IoP and at Guy’s Hospital at London Bridge. They are led by Professor Ulrike Schmidt, based at the IoP, and Professor Janet Treasure, based at Guy’s.
Ulrike Schmidt is a Professor of Eating Disorders and a consultant psychiatrist. In addition to her research, she is in charge of SLaM’s outpatient eating disorders services based at the Maudsley Hospital.
Janet Treasure is a Professor of Psychiatry and a consultant psychiatrist who has specialised in the treatment of eating disorders for more than 20 years. She is chief medical advisor of beat and is director of SLaM’s inpatient unit at the Bethlem Royal Hospital.
The Section has developed a website with information for people who have eating disorders, their families and friends, and for health professionals. Visit www.eatingresearch.com.
It also produces newsletters about its work on an ad hoc basis: pdfs of these are available on the Eating Disorders newsletters page.
The Section of Eating Disorders is in the Department of Psychological Medicine in the Division of Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry.
Section of Eating Disorders
Division of Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry, PO59
Institute of Psychiatry
De Crespigny Park
London SE5 8AF
Contact: Jocelyn De Guzman
j.de_guzman@klc.ac.uk
Phone: 020 7848 0160
Fax: 020 7848 0182