An adaptive connection with one’s body is like a great conversation. The body talks -- expresses a need (stomach contracts) or a change from a prior state -- and the individual responds in turn. Typically, this back-and-forth communication occurs seamlessly.

For those with eating disorders, profound deficits in the ability to read and respond effectively to a body's signals leads to disruptions in conversation, difficulties meeting basic needs, and often, problems connecting and understanding the experience of others.

We focus our research on individuals struggling with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, pediatric binge eating, and feeding disorders of childhood: conditions that often appear simultaneously with dysregulation of basic motivational drives (e.g., hunger, thirst, or affective arousal).

Our laboratory is committed to helping affected individuals reconnect. Thus, we use findings from our more basic neurocognitive, physiological, and behavioral research to inform the development of novel intervention strategies. Our treatment development efforts capitalize on the latest advances in behavior therapy and neuroscience and include individual, family and group-based interventions.

Clinical Trials

Current trials include:

• Learning in Anorexia Nervosa
  The purpose of this study is to learn more about the way individuals with eating disorders process information, which may help us develop new treatments.
• The Food F.A.D. Study (Finicky Eating in Adults)
  Scientists know very little about the range of adult eating behaviors and problems. We are conducting an online survey of unusual eating habits in adults.
• Emotional Processing in Patients with Anorexia Nervosa
  The goal of this study is to compare emotional processing in women with anorexia nervosa to the emotional processing in a set of patients with no history of an eating disorder.
• Diabetes Food and Mood Study
  Patients with type 1 diabetes are needed for a study examining the relationship diabetics have with eating and weight.
• The Gut Feelings Study
  This study seeks to uncover how intuition and gut feelings effect the everyday lives of adolescents.
• Social Reward and Decision Making
  This research study will improve our knowledge about the function and development of the human brain. Knowledge from these studies may help us to develop more effective treatments for individuals with eating disorders.
• Finding Foods Fearful: A Study of Children and Adolescents with a Fear of Trying New Foods
  If you think your child has a fear of trying new foods or has such a limited food variety that it gets in his or her way, join our online registry of parents who have a child who struggles with food neophobia.
• Connect-ED
  The Duke Center for Eating Disorders seeks people with and without eating disorders who would like to participate in future studies.
• Protecting Kids from Eating Disorders Duke: The Pro-KEDS Study
  Children between the ages of eight and 12 who have at least one parent with a current or former diagnosis of anorexia nervosa are needed to participate in this study.