Lecture – Using a Collaborative Model to Improve Detection and Treatment of Eating Disorders

Available with English captions.

Presented by Christine M. Peat, PhD, LP, National Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders – Visiting Scholar Series lecture

At some point in their lives, some 30 million Americans will be affected by an eating disorder. Those with conditions like anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder often have other psychiatric conditions including substance use disorder, anxiety, and depression. Today, eating disorders have the second highest mortality rate out of all psychiatric illnesses, including deaths by suicide.

Watch now to learn more about:

  • Challenges patients and families face when seeking information on and/or treatment for eating disorders
  • The impetus for funding the nation’s first federally designated center of excellence on eating disorders
  • A summary of the efforts underway within the National Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders (NCEED)

Although eating disorder rates are on the rise, access to evidence-based practice is limited. Moreover, misinformation is pervasive. The public is challenged to separate the accurate from the harmful.

Despite the known consequences of eating disorders on physical and psychological health, only 20-57% of those with eating disorders ever receive treatment.

In this lecture, Peat explains the dangers of eating disorders, the challenges facing patients and clinicians, and efforts to improve diagnosis and care.

She explains that limited knowledge about and comfort with treating eating disorders among physicians poses a barrier to care. Also, she says, patients and families often receive inaccurate and sometimes harmful information about eating disorders and their management.

The National Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders (NCEED) was created to address these challenges. The organization aims to be an interactive, web-based program that:

  • Delivers high-quality training in evidence-based practice for health care providers from a range of disciplines who are engaged in the treatment of eating disorders
  • Serves as a national resource for eating disorder literacy

Peat explains how NCEED is developing a nationwide network of diverse health care providers who can detect, treat, and prevent eating disorders. NCEED also seeks to empower the public to find reliable and accurate information about these conditions.

In addition, Peat details the ways that NCEED aims to become the national authoritative source for information and training in eating disorders. She states that NCEED hopes to become a “blueprint” for addressing information and training problems associated with other conditions.