Eating Disorders and Behaviors

Eating disorders and disordered behaviors around food affect people across all demographics, yet they remain among the most poorly understood and underdiagnosed conditions in clinical psychology, carrying some of the highest mortality rates of any psychiatric illness. Researchers study the full range of contributing factors — from genetic vulnerabilities and neurobiological mechanisms to cultural pressures, media exposure, and failures in emotional regulation — in an effort to explain why some individuals develop conditions like anorexia, bulimia, or binge-eating disorder while others do not. A central open question is how genetic predispositions interact with environmental triggers, particularly during adolescence, when risk appears to peak and intervention may be most effective. Ongoing work is also pushing toward more personalized treatment approaches, recognizing that the psychological and biological profiles of people with eating disorders are far more heterogeneous than early clinical models assumed.

Works

127,285

Total citations

2,536,849

Keywords

Eating DisordersBody ImageObesityGeneticsPsychological FactorsNeurobiological Correlates