Big Ideas In Eating Disorders

Dr. Marsha Marcus

Dr. Marsha Marcus, Professor Emerita at The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, has devoted a significant part of her career to the study of binge eating and the development of treatments for people with binge eating disorder. She started out with a focus on obesity treatment. During the course of her work, she noticed that a significant percentage of people seeking weight-loss treatment also described patterns of binge eating that contributed significantly to their health concerns and their distress. This observation catalyzed decades of clinical practice and research straddling the worlds of obesity and eating disorders. In this episode, Dr. Marcus describes her pioneering work and raises serious concerns about the ways in which science and advocacy are often conflated in the “Health at Any Size Movement” – to the detriment of the people who scientists, clinicians and advocates all want to serve.

Dr. Eva Trujillo

Dr. Eva Trujillo is the founder and executive director of Comenzar de Nuevo, a nonprofit organization recognized throughout Latin America that supports the prevention, teaching, research, advocacy, and treatment of eating disorders at all levels of care. Dr. Trujillo’s treatment program receives an average of 400 first-time patients annually from 11 countries and 27 states of Mexico and serves as a model for other Latin American countries. In this episode, Dr. Trujillo speaks from experience and challenges some standard assumptions about how best to disseminate evidence-based therapies in diverse cultural contexts.

Donna Friedman

Donna Friedman, M.S., is the founder of the Friedman Center for Eating Disorders at the Medical University of South Carolina. Ms. Friedman has personal lived experience with eating disorders, as both someone who has had anorexia nervosa and a parent of a son with an eating disorder. In this episode, Ms. Friedman reflects on her personal and professional journey of treatment and recovery. Donna talks with Kathy about her varied experiences with treatment, the neuroscience of eating disorders, and how connection was key to real recovery. Donna reflects on how her personal journey informs her work as a therapist and how she prioritizes real connection in the therapy process with her patients.

Dr. Craig Johnson

Dr. Craig Johnson is the Senior Clinical Advisor at the Eating Recover Center in Denver, Colorado and the Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Oklahoma Medical School. Dr. Johnson talks about how his academic career in psychology led him to the field of eating disorders and how his study in schizophrenia was the foundation to his early understanding of the field. They discuss the road and bridges that were essential to building the field of eating disorders, the importance of asking the right questions, the beginnings of the International Journal of Eating Disorders and the appreciation for the biopsychosocial model.

Dr. Paul Garfinkel

Dr. Paul Garfinkel is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and a Staff Psychiatrist at Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Dr. Garfinkel talks about how he got into medicine, psychiatry and then into eating disorders. They discuss the influences Hilde Bruch and Herb Weiner had on Dr. Garfinkel, prioritizing prevention strategies and messages about authenticity and not running away from hard things.

Dr. Stewart Agras

Dr. Stewart Agras is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, research psychiatrist and Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stanford University. Dr. Agras gives the backstory on how he began studying Agoraphobia and how that eventually led into the field of eating disorders. They discuss Dr. Agras’ experiences studying medicine in England right after war, measuring behavior change and his big idea of making treatment better.

Dr. Ruth Weissman

Dr. Ruth Weissman is the Walter A. Crowell Professor of Social Science and professor of psychology emerita at Wesleyan University and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Eating Disorders. Dr. Weissman shares how she got her start researching eating and weight disorders at a psychophysiology lab at Max-Planck-Institute for Psychiatry in Munich, Germany. Dr. Weissman highlights the work she did with Drs. Judith Rodin and Lisa Silberstein at Yale University as they developed their psychosocial model for eating disorders. Years in the making, Dr. Weissman’s big idea in eating disorders led to groundbreaking work on the economic burden of eating disorders.

Dr. Chris Fairburn

Dr. Chris Fairburn is a British psychiatrist and researcher, an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford and he is known for his research on the development, evaluation and dissemination of psychological treatments, especially for eating disorders. Dr. Fairburn starts from the beginning and how it all stemmed from how he just wanted to see the world be a different place. They discuss the circumstances behind the case that launched his research career, a clinical trial they worked on together, his “big idea” and challenging old ideas.

Dr. Kelly Vitousek

Dr. Kelly Vitousek is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa where she also serves as Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and is the Director of the Eating Disorders Program.  Dr. Vitousek talks about her journey toward studying eating disorders and starting out with a publication in Psychological Bulletin as a college graduate. They discuss focusing of the distinguishing features of the disorder that set it apart and her big idea about embracing the extreme behaviors that align with anorexia and nervosa.

Dr. B. Timothy Walsh

Timothy Walsh, MD, FAED, is the William and Joy Ruane Professor of Pediatric Psychopharmacology in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University and the author, editor, and co-editor of five books on adolescent health and eating disorders. Dr. Walsh talks about how he got interested in medicine, psychiatry and eating disorders and how he learned the value in knowing what people are eating and not just what they tell you they are eating. They discuss the way people engage in behavior, separating the behavior change from the habit and emphasizing the need to not only be curious and skeptical but also have a passion for research.