Considered the deadliest mental illness in the United States, clinically-significant eating disorders will affect approximately 20 million women and 10 million men at some point in their lives. And according to recent statistics, 20 million people in the European Union alone have an eating disorder, with a staggering cost of €1 trillion per year.

Last week, a study was published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders stating that people who struggled with eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors during adolescence earned less money later on in life. These results are interesting, but more work can be done to explore what these results might really mean for individuals who have struggled with eating concerns.

About the Study

“Being a research subject may sound scary, or evoke images of being treated like a human guinea   pig, but it’s nothing like that at all.”  (Marty) 

NEDA is incredibly honored and proud to announce the 2014 NEDA Award Winners, presented to individual for their outstanding contributions to the field of eating disorders:

NEDA is proud to announce the winners of the Feeding Hope Fund grants, whose innovative research projects will also make progress in the ways we treat eating disorders.

Day two of the 2014 NEDA Conference was a day of hope. Both general sessions – the Family Panel and the session on Prevention – sent the message that when we stick together, we can make progress against eating disorders. We also announced the winners of the Feeding Hope Fund grants, whose innovative research projects will also make progress in the ways we treat eating disorders.

Howdy, y’all! NEDA is so excited to be here in lovely San Antonio for the 2014 NEDA Conference! This year’s Conference is themed, “Thinking Big: Uniting Families and Professionals in the Fight Against Eating Disorders,” and we are doing just that!

British Member of Parliament, Brooks Newmark, was just 17 when he endured anorexia nervosa. He surely knows that overcoming the disease takes not only mass amounts of support, but research to help understand the dynamics of such a crippling eating disorder. Fortunately, the newly appointed minister of the Civil Society has recently donated his blood to a study that seeks to collect 25,000 samples from those who have suffered, by 2016.

Dr. Thomas Insel has been shaking up the world of mental and behavioral health for over thirty years. He has had an eclectic career and has studied everything from drug therapy for OCD to the biology of bonding in rodents. As the longest-serving Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Insel has outlined new priorities for the field and updated the infrastructure of the organization to emphasize neuroscience and genetics research.

NEDA announced the first recipients of the Feeding Hope Fund for Clinical Research & Training grant at the 2013 Annual Conference in Washington, DC. Totaling $400,000, the two grants were given to Daniel Le Grange, PhD and Denise Wilfley, PhD with an eye on utilizing technology to improve treatment for eating disorders.

 In this post, Dr. Wilfley talks more in depth about her project, Harnessing Technology for Training Clinicians to Deliver Interpersonal Psychotherapy :