A new study by Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University suggests that the DSM-IV criteria for eating disorders have limited clinical utility. Researchers recommend a broadening of the criteria for bulimia, anorexia and binge eating disorder.

Providing accurate information and improving knowledge of the illness is the most effective preliminary strategy against eating disorders, according to a study in Early Intervention in Psychiatry published by Wiley Blackwell.

In the first randomized controlled trial for adolescent bulimia nervosa to be completed in the US, researchers show that mobilizing parents to help an adolescent overcome the disorder can double the percentage of teens who were able to abstain from binge eating and purging after six months.

University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) psychologists have developed an animal model for the binge eating disorder, which affects an estimated one in 20 Americans. The Sprague-Dawley rat model could lead to the identification of physiological mechanisms that distinguish different types of eating disorders and to the creation of new, targeted drug therapies.