Eating disorders
Contemporary childhood
Our work on eating disorders is renowned worldwide for the psychological treatments we offer to children and adolescents. We combine highly specialist knowledge of eating disorders with expertise in family therapy and individual approaches. Our team focuses on supporting families to understand the nature and impact of their family member’s eating disorder.
Our clinical work
The treatment we offer is mainly provided by our multidisciplinary team which includes psychiatrists, psychologists, a paediatrician, paediatric and mental health nurses, family therapists, a dietitian and an art therapist.
Along with family and individual therapy we also offer multi-family therapy for bulimia nervosa and anorexia, involving several families coming together to work side by side, with further follow-up group meetings over several months. We also offer an alternative Intensive day Treatment Programme to inpatient treatment that works actively with families at all stages of the treatment. This allows for better outcomes; young people recovering more quickly, preventing protracted inpatient admissions and reducing relapse rates.
Our research
Our research aims to identify the neurobiological, genetic and psychological causes and consequences of a range of eating disorders, and aims to use this knowledge to create better, more targeted treatments and services.
Our research includes bench to bedside studies, where we translate findings from basic science into clinical care, evaluating current treatments and finding out how we can scale up and disseminate successful, evidence-based studies. We work closely with patients and carers to co-produce research studies and interventions.
Find out more
Read more about our research and key publications here.
Our partnership work
Through the collaborative input from our clinical and research teams we co-ordinate on a number of studies which range across the different themes and interventions. These include bringing service users into the development and evaluation of services and treatments, as well as research into the long-term, day to day consequences of eating disorders.
Our future vision for children and young people
In future we aim to continue developing novel, brain-targeted treatments ranging from augmentation, to virtual reality and talking therapies.
