An ethnographic analysis of bulimia nervosa
Research type
Research Study
Full title
“Taking it in, to take it out”: an ethnographic study of bulimia nervosa
IRAS ID
227920
Contact name
Leonie A. J. Mol
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London (KCL)
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Psychiatry in Western Europe is changing. Western European and the British governments are reorganising public psychiatric services profoundly (GGZ Nederland 2013; Stewart & Taylor 2016). At the same time, new ways of treating patients such as “shared decision-making” are being designed by medical practitioners to “activate” patients’ sense of responsibility and role in treatment (Broersen 2011; Elwyn et al. 2012; Godolphin 2009).
I analyse the changing nature of contemporary psychiatry by focussing on how bulimia nervosa is treated, portrayed and experienced. Over 1.6 million people in the UK are being diagnosed with an eating disorder today. Bulimia occurs five times more than anorexia nervosa (NICE 2004; Map of Medicine 2016). Despite these figures, little is known about this eating disorder and the experience of its treatments.
Bulimia is characterised by periods of fasting and exercising, alternated with binge-eating, for which the patient compensates through purging, exercising or renewed fasting (APA 2013; WHO 1993). There is no agreement within the field of psychiatry about the causes of, and treatments for the disorder: clinical explanations vary from hypotheses on emotional instability to impaired decision-making (Heatherton & Baumeister 1991; IOPPN 2016, Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016).
In this research, I will examine self-help groups, since these are precisely the field in which the aim of contemporary psychiatric techniques to “empower” and patients unfold. Over the course of a year, I aim to observe meetings of at least two different self-help groups, conduct in-depth interviews with individual members of these groups, and observe current patients in treatment for bulimia interacting with their health care worker.
Ethnographic research tools combined with discourse analysis will enable me to obtain insight into the contexts of the disorder in detail, allowing for a multi-level integrative analysis of bulimia as both a discursive site and lived experience.
REC name
London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/1577
Date of REC Opinion
2 Feb 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion