Each month our editorial team sifts through hundreds of papers and curates notable findings—for practitioners and informed readers who want to stay current with the evidence. Subscribe to the monthly Research Digest for expert analysis and concise summaries of key papers.
This rapid review looked at research from 2009–2022 about outcomes for people with eating disorders. The authors found inconsistent definitions and limited long-term follow-up in the literature. Overall, the evidence points to low rates of remission and a high risk of death—especially for anorexia nervosa—and much of the research focuses…
This small case series tested group-based ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (G-KAP) with five women in a residential eating-disorder program. Participants got weekly intramuscular ketamine in a group for 4 weeks. Four of five showed clinically meaningful drops in depression scores after the final session, and two of five showed clinically meaningful drops…
This review and meta-analysis looked at studies up to 2024 on body-positive social media content. It reviewed 56 studies (19 were left out of the meta-analysis for bad or missing data). Overall, short-term exposure to body-positive posts was linked to better body satisfaction and improved mood, especially when posts showed…
Researchers worked with 17 Australian women who had an eating disorder during the menopause transition to co-design an online educational resource. Over a series of recorded workshops, the team identified six main themes about needs and services and created a prototype that participants rated positively. Women said the resource improved…
This study asked 333 people with high eating-disorder symptoms about stigma, shame, and whether they sought help. The research found that perceived stigma, self-stigma, and shame together were linked to help-seeking and “predicted 64% of help-seeking behaviour (p = .005)” after accounting for age and gender. The single stigma concern…
This short paper, written by researchers, clinicians and people with lived experience, argues that thinking of eating disorders mainly as a problem of “control” is too simple. The authors say control can matter for some people, but making it the main story risks blaming the person, missing life events and…
This scoping review (searching studies from 2010 to Aug 2023) summarized 17 reports from 15 studies on cannabis and anorexia nervosa (AN). The evidence is limited and mixed. Several studies reported differences in the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in people with AN. A small number of studies tested cannabinoid treatments and…
This study analysed answers from 5,247 adults with diagnosed or self-reported eating disorders about their use of psychedelic drugs. About one third (32.4%) had ever used psychedelics and 19.4% had used them in the past year. Users most often took psilocybin or LSD only once or twice per year. People…
