Clinical eating disorders have one of the highest mortalities of any psychiatric category. They can be long lasting and life blighting. However, too often they are thought of by the general public, and sometimes even by health care professionals, either as trivial and perhaps glamorous or as rare and extraordinary.
A team of Leicester researchers is keen to correct these misconceptions and to portray eating disorders as important, serious, ordinary - and treatable. Getting better and escaping from an eating disorder is a demanding and active business but if sufferers can apply resolve and determination, modern treatments can provide reliable ladders that they use to climb back to health and a life worth living.
The researchers, based in the University of Leicester Department of Health Sciences (Division of Psychiatry), are conducting a major randomised controlled trial of psychological treatment for eating disorders, one of the largest ever trials of any psychological treatment.
Psychiatrist Dr Bob Palmer, a senior lecturer at the University, and his colleagues are comparing two new versions of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). The work, funded by a programme grant from the Wellcome Trust, is a joint project with the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford University, where the treatments have been developed by Professor Christopher Fairburn and Dr Zafra Cooper.
This two-centre study breaks new ground in a number of ways. Firstly, the treatments are novel and promise to be more effective than standard treatments.
Secondly, the recruitment of patients is aimed to be as wide and unselective as possible so as to avoid the criticism that research trials tend to select only 'special' or 'easy' patients. With few exceptions, if a patient referred to the Eating Disorders Service based at the Brandon Unit, run by Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, is confirmed as having an eating disorder, comes from a defined catchment area which the team calls 'Wellcomeshire' and consents to take part, then they are in the trial.