Examining the biological causes of eating disorders to inform treatment strategies

Abstract

Despite their prevalence, eating disorders (EDs) are under-researched and often misunderstood. A recent focus of research on the biological underpinnings of EDs has helped to reframe our understanding of their origins, but there remain a lack of effective treatment options, high rates of relapse and, unfortunately, high mortality and morbidity. In this Review, we highlight the many facets of normal and pathological feeding behaviour and body weight regulation and suggest that these provide a framework with which to develop integrative methods to study, and ultimately treat, EDs. We propose that a better understanding of the biological causes of ED, and their crucial interactions with psychological and environmental factors, is necessary to progress the field. This can be achieved through a combination of preclinical and clinical investigations, which provide complementary information on these highly complex disorders. In the era of individualized medicine and with the advent of artificial intelligence tools that allow the amalgamation of multimodal data, we hope that a better understanding of the biology of EDs may hold the answer to effectively overcoming the debilitating effects of these conditions. Recent years have seen a growth in our understanding of the biological drivers of eating disorders and their interactions with environmental and psychosocial factors. Foldi and Griffiths consider how interdisciplinary research, dimensional diagnostic approaches and improved animal models may enable the development of more effective treatments for these disorders.