Understanding General Practitioners Attitudes towards Eating Disorders
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Eating disorder diagnosis and early intervention: An exploration of General Practitioners attitudes towards patients with eating disorders
IRAS ID
244059
Contact name
B Ozcan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
London School of Economics
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 31 days
Research summary
The research is being undertaken as part of a Masters' degree, with the aim of determining the attitude of General Practitioners towards eating disorders through exploratory interviews. Eating disorders (Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa) result in the highest rate of mortality of any psychiatric disorder, and are often suffered alongside other mental and physical illnesses. Sufferers can wait years before seeking treatment (Beat 2018) and then suffer for years longer if their symptoms are not diagnosed or identified early enough. Recovery is a slow process and the earlier a sufferer can get into recovery the better their chances of a long-term recovery. There is a large focus on early intervention within this field currently, and my focus is to explore the stage before intervention, which is the enabling for to early intervention - the detection and identification stage. Identification of eating disorders does not just occur within primary care settings, it can occur in the community or within other health-related settings, such as the dentist due to tooth erosion and decay as a result of bulimia nervosa.
My research would involve interviewing both GP's and Eating Disorder sufferers in recovery to begin to unpick some common issues that might be faced at this stage of early identification. I anticipate interviews to last 30-60 minutes, and occur in a public setting such as GP practice or local cafe space. GPs will be asked questions about their experience of identifying eating disorders, their understanding about clinical guidelines, and ideas of best practice or confidence with patients of this illness. All interviews will be anonymised and kept confidential, adhering to guidelines of the Data Protection Act. The goal is to provide a foundation for further research and ultimately, influence reform for the way eating disorders are recognised to help more sufferers recover.
REC name
London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/0632
Date of REC Opinion
4 May 2018
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion