WellChild Research Projects
Adolescent eating disorders: a longitudinal study of course and preventable risk factors
Researcher: Dr Nadia Micali, Clinical lecturer, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London
Grant award sum: £74,000
Duration: 2009 - end 2011
Synopsis: Eating disorders and related behaviours (EDRB) start in early adolescence, and are common. They affect adolescents’ psychological, physical and social well-being and have the highest death rate amongst psychiatric disorders.
There is still uncertainty about why some of these behaviours are transient and naturally disappear, and some might become more chronic and need treatment. There is also uncertainty about what causes EDRB.
The most likely explanation is that these eating disorders are caused by different risk factors, related to the individual, parents and society, acting from before birth. No previous research has studied causes for EDRB from before birth. Developing a risk factor model, sensitive to individual development, that studies the onset of EDRB can help prevention.
The researchers aim:
- to clarify the course of EDRB in early and mid-adolescence, in particular which behaviours are chronic and which ones disappear spontaneously
- to build a developmental model of risk factors for adolescent EDRB
- to determine if maternal eating disorders also affects the development of EDRB.
