{"id":2602,"date":"2021-12-22T12:10:20","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T01:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edgi.nz\/?p=2602"},"modified":"2025-12-09T13:31:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T00:31:47","slug":"the-great-underfunding-of-eating-disorders-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/edgi\/2021\/12\/22\/the-great-underfunding-of-eating-disorders-research\/","title":{"rendered":"The great underfunding of eating disorders research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian and UK researchers (<\/span>1)<\/span>\u00a0have recently reported on the\u00a0strikingly\u00a0low funding\u00a0provided for\u00a0eating\u00a0disorders\u00a0research.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Much more research is needed to address fundamental questions about eating disorders.\u00a0We still\u00a0know\u00a0little\u00a0about the basic biology, susceptibility of eating disorders, or how best to care for those with eating disorders. However, we do know that eating disorders are serious conditions with significant impacts for people\u00a0who experience\u00a0them,\u00a0and\u00a0for\u00a0their\u00a0wh\u0101nau.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conducting research\u00a0is costly.\u00a0To enable\u00a0this\u00a0work,\u00a0researchers seek funding from sources\u00a0including Government research agencies,\u00a0charitable funding\u00a0organisations,\u00a0and\u00a0philanthropy (people or family trusts offering donations).\u00a0Seeking funding is highly competitive and\u00a0these funds are not\u00a0equally\u00a0distributed throughout all types of research.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Australian and UK researchers recently highlighted the huge difference in funding for research on different types of mental health disorders. They report that in Australia, the research funding breakdown per person with autism was about $32, and per person with schizophrenia it was $67. This is in stark contrast to just over $1 per person with an eating disorder (<\/span>2)<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>despite the\u00a0similar<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>prevalence of these three conditions in Australia. Similar funding differences were reported in the UK, where 14% of funding went to psychosis researchers, and only 1% of funding for eating disorders researchers (<\/span>2)<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The huge difference in funding means that research in eating disorders\u00a0lags behind,\u00a0as the researchers\u00a0struggle to cover costs so they can\u00a0find answers\u00a0to the\u00a0fundamental questions.\u00a0Better funding of eating disorder research is clearly needed to further our knowledge.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fortunately\u00a0in\u00a0Aotearoa,\u00a0we have a major research project underway called Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative (EDGI), funded\u00a0<\/span>by the National Institute of Mental Health (USA)\u00a0<\/span>as part of an\u00a0international consortium including the\u00a0USA, Denmark and Australia.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To read more about this exciting research and\u00a0the Aotearoa branch of this study, go to\u00a0our\u202fhomepage<\/span><\/i>\u202f(<\/span>https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/edgi\/<\/span><\/a>).\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span> \"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Allison, S.,\u00a0Wade,\u00a0T., Schmidt, Treasure,\u00a0J.,\u00a0Bastiampillai, J.,\u00a0and Looi,\u00a0J.C.L. (2021).\u00a0Setting a youth-focused research agenda for eating disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic.\u00a0<\/span>Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry<\/span><\/i>, 1-3.\u00a0DOI: 10.1177\/00048674211054743\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Flinders\u00a0University.\u00a0(2021, November 1). ‘Starkly\u00a0low’ research\u00a0funding\u00a0for eating disorders.\u00a0Scimex.\u00a0Retrieved\u00a0November\u00a02, 2021,\u00a0from\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/www.scimex.org\/newsfeed\/starkly-low-research-funding-for-eating-disorders<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Australian and UK researchers (1)\u00a0have recently reported on the\u00a0strikingly\u00a0low funding\u00a0provided for\u00a0eating\u00a0disorders\u00a0research.\u00a0\u00a0 Much more research is needed to address fundamental questions about eating disorders.\u00a0We still\u00a0know\u00a0little\u00a0about the basic biology, susceptibility of eating disorders, or how best to care for those with eating disorders. However, we do know that eating disorders are serious conditions with significant impacts for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27392,"featured_media":2603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/edgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/edgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/edgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/edgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27392"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/edgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/edgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/edgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/edgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/edgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}