Eating disorders and body image.

Eating disorders are under-researched illnesses which come at a high personal and financial cost to the individuals who suffer, as well as their families and wider society. Our research aims to increase understanding of disordered eating behaviours and eating disorders, including how people view and feel about their bodies, and to develop new methods to prevent and treat eating disorders. 

To do this, we work with a group of collaborators from a range of backgrounds – from neuroscience to epidemiology, to computer sciences and sociology, via human-computer interaction and experimental psychology. Because we aim to improve prevention and treatment outcomes, we also work closely with people with lived experience, parents and carers, and clinicians.

The group is led by Dr Helen Bould, Associate Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist in Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, and NIHR Advanced Fellow. Helen also co-leads the Bristol BRC Mental Health Theme.

You can also read more about the group’s work on Virtual Reality and Eating Disorders here: https://virtualrealityandeatingdisorders.co.uk.

Selected Publications

    Hughes, A. M. M., Flint, S., Clare, K., Kousoulis, A., Rothwell, E., Bould, H. E. & Howe, L. D. Demographic, socioeconomic and life-course risk factors for internalized weight stigma in adulthood: evidence from an English birth cohort study. 1 May 2024, In: The Lancet Regional Health - Europe. 40, 11 p., 100895.
    Bould, H. E., Kennedy, M.-R., Penton-Voak, I. S., Thomas, L. M., Bird, J. & Biddle, L. A., Exploring How Virtual Reality Could Be Used to Treat Eating Disorders: Qualitative Study of People With Eating Disorders and Clinicians Who Treat Them. 14 May 2024, In: JMIR. 1 (2024), 15 p., e47382.
    Lotery, E., Bell, R., Combe, G., Biddle, L. A. & Bould, H. E. Qualitative study of the impact on recovery of peer relationships between female inpatients during treatment for anorexia nervosa in the United Kingdom. 9 Feb 2024, In: International Journal of Eating Disorders. 57, 2, p. 353-362 10 p.
    House, T., Stephen, I., Brooks, K., Bould, H. E., Attwood, A. S. & Penton-Voak, I. S. The Effect of an Odd-One-Out Visual Search Task on Attentional Bias, Body Size Adaptation, and Body Dissatisfaction. 17 Jul 2024, In: Royal Society Open Science. 11, 7, 15 p., 231817.
    Power, G. M., Warne, N., Bould, H. E., Casanova, F., Jones, S. E., Richardson, T. G., Tyrrell, J., Davey Smith, G. & Heron, J. E., The role of body image dissatisfaction in the relationship between body size and disordered eating and self-harm: complimentary Mendelian randomization and mediation analyses.13 Aug 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Molecular Psychiatry. 11 p.
    Thea House; Katrina Graham; Bridget S Ellis; Helen Bould; Angela Attwood; Ian Stephen; Kevin Brooks; Ian Penton-Voak Is body dissatisfaction related to an attentional bias towards low weight bodies in non-clinical samples of women? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Body Image 2022-12-21 DOI: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.12.003
    Warne, N., Heron, J. E., Mars, B., Solmi, F., Biddle, L. A., Gunnell, D. J., Hammerton, G. L., Moran, P. A., Munafo, M. R., Penton-Voak, I. S., Skinner, A. L., Stewart, A. & Bould, H. E., Emotional dysregulation in childhood and disordered eating and self-harm in adolescence: Prospective associations and mediating pathways. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 21 Dec 22 epub ahead of print.
    Guy, J., Bould, H., Lewis, G., & Solmi, F. (2021). Stigmatising views towards individuals with eating disorders: Trends and associations from 1998 to 2008using a repeated cross-sectional design. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 1-7. Doi:10.1192/bjp.2021.175
    Kwong, A. S. F., Pearson, R. M., Adams, M. J., Northstone, K., Tilling, K., Smith, D., Fawns-Ritchie, C., Bould, H., Warne, N., Zammit, S., Gunnell, D., Moran, P., Micali, N., Reichenberg, A., Hickman, M., Rai, D., Haworth, S., Campbell, A., Altschul, D., ... Timpson, N. J. (2020). Mental health before and during COVID-19 in two longitudinal UK population cohorts. British Journal of Psychiatry, 2020 1-27.
    Solmi, F., Bould, H. E., Lloyd, E. C., & Lewis, G. The shrouded visibility of eating disorders research. Lancet Psychiatry. 20 Nov 2020 (epub ahead of print)