Latest News

While the start of college is a positive, momentous event for many young people, it also can be an episode that pushes some into a dangerous battle with eating disorders, says University of Alabama at Birmingham Associate Professor of Psychology Mary Boggiano, Ph.D., who fought her own battle against bulimia as a college student.

New research finds that a history of sexual abuse, regardless of the victim's gender or age when the abuse occurred, correlates strongly with a lifetime diagnosis of multiple psychiatric disorders.

Normal weight and underweight teenage girls who falsely believe they are overweight are at significantly greater risk of succumbing to unnecessary and unsafe weight-loss behaviors than girls who can accurately assess their weight status, according to new research by a University of Illinois expert in eating disorders and body-image perception.
 

For the first time, scientists have discovered a possible biological culprit in the development of eating disorders during puberty: a type of estrogen called estradiol.

College cheerleaders are at high risk for body image issues and eating disorders - and may be affected by how revealing their uniforms are, according to a study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine's 57th Annual Meeting in Baltimore.

A team of American psychologists and neuroscientists have found that adult brain volume, which can be reduced by Anorexia Nervosa, can be regained. The research, published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, revealed that through specialist treatment patients with this eating disorder can reverse this symptom and regain grey matter volume.

Imagine stuffing yourself with a day's worth of food in two hours or less. Imagine feeling disgusted, depressed and guilty once you finally stop. Then imagine doing it again, repeatedly and uncontrollably, once a week or more for months on end. You have just imagined yourself with binge eating disorder (BED), a psychiatric condition similar to other eating disorders like bulimia, minus the countervailing purging behaviour, and compulsive overeating, but without the constant fantasizing about food. Some BED sufferers, in fact, have very negative associations with food. Moreover, until now, researchers knew little about the underlying causes of BED.

Binge eating disorder, or BED - a condition that has lingered in the appendix of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, since the last edition was published nearly 20 years ago - would be formally promoted to the main manual under proposed revisions for the next edition of DSM.

Minnesota’s senators, Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, as well as Iowa’s Sen. Tom Harkin, introduced the Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders (FREED) Act on Tuesday, which would direct the federal government to track, screen, diagnose and treat eating disorders. The bill is the first of its kind in the Senate and will improve access to treatment for people suffering from eating disorders, especially teens on government assistance.

Teen eating disorders can take a devastating toll on adolescents — especially teen girls. To help protect your teen, understand the possible causes of teen eating disorders and know how to talk to your teen about healthy eating habits.

Diagnostic cutoffs for anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa may be too strict, a study from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital has found.

The standard criteria psychiatrists use to diagnose anorexia nervosa and bulimia may be too rigid and exclude many patients who urgently require treatment for eating disorders, a new study suggests.

The television news and entertainment media are missing the mark when it comes to communicating realistic and helpful information about health and weight to Americans, according to an expert media panel recently assembled at Pace University in New York City.

The television news and entertainment media are missing the mark when it comes to communicating realistic and helpful information about health and weight to Americans, according to an expert media panel assembled today at Pace University in New York City.

What parents need to realize, food experts say, is that what they say and do is just as important as what they put on their kid's plate.

Kaiser Permanente study first to find program stops binge eating and saves patients money

Some of the same brain mechanisms that fuel drug addiction in humans accompany the emergence of compulsive eating behaviors and the development of obesity in animals, according to research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a component of the National Institutes of Health.

Obtaining therapy via teleconference is just as effective as face-to-face sessions, according to a new research by Stephane Guay, a psychiatry professor at the Universite de Montreal.

The obesity epidemic is hitting children harder than ever, with 7.3 percent of boys and 5.5 percent of girls classified as extremely obese in a California study, researchers from Kaiser Permanente report.

They would love to be perfect mothers. Instead, they feel ashamed and inadequate, and fearful that their children might inherit their eating difficulties.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool argue that anti-obesity drugs fail to provide lasting benefits for health and wellbeing because they tackle the biological consequences of obesity, and not the important psychological causes of overconsumption and weight gain.

Diabetics, under the gun to better manage their disease by controlling their food intake and weight, may find themselves in the sticky wicket of needing treatment that makes them hungry, researchers said.

Undergraduate women who join a sorority are more likely to judge their own bodies from an outsider's perspectiveand display higher levels of bulimic attitudes and behaviors.

UK psychiatrists have announced they are concerned about the harmful influence of the media on people's body image and are calling for a new editorial code to stop the promotion of unhealthily thin bodies and making eating disorders appear glamorous.
 

The control and perfectionism that set Olympic athletes apart from their peers at lower levels of competition often have a darker side, according to Kimberly Dennis, M.D., a leading psychiatrist specializing in eating disorder treatment.

New proposed changes posted for leading manual of mental disorders.

People with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa have excess levels of fat in their bone marrow, U.S. researchers have found.

A team of scientists at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and the National Institutes of Health have piloted psychotherapy for the prevention of excessive weight gain in teenage girls deemed 'at-risk' for obesity.

Certain kinds of talk therapy and guided self-help are both more likely than behavioral weight loss treatment to keep people free from binge eating disorder, according to a new study.

Several maladaptive eating behaviors, beyond anorexia, can affect women. Indeed, some 10 to 15 percent of women have maladaptive eating behaviours and attitudes according to new study from the Université de Montréal and...
 

The premise that hunger makes food look more appealing is a widely held belief just ask those who cruise grocery store aisles on an empty stomach, only to go home with a full basket and an empty wallet.

The causes of obesity are complex and individual, but it is clear that chronic overeating plays a fundamental role. But when this behaviour becomes compulsive and out of control, it is often classified as "food addiction" -...
 

In an unprecedented show of concern, The Academy for Eating Disorders (AED), Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA), Eating Disorder Coalition (EDC), International Association for Eating Disorder Professionals (IADEP), and National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) have joined forces and are urging focus on health and lifestyle rather than weight as a measurement of well-being...
 

Binge eating disorder typically includes periods of excessive overeating. However, a person with a binge eating disorder does not subsequently induce purging (vomiting), as is the case with bulimia.

Binge eating can occur on its own, or alongside other disorders or conditions, such as Prader-Willi disorder, or a lesion of the hypothalamus gland...