Survivors may hold key to beating anorexia

A psychology researcher at the University of Sydney is seeking participants for a study to understand how patients recover from chronic anorexia nervosa, which has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Lisa Dawson, a Master's candidate in the School of Psychology , is taking a novel approach to the notoriously misunderstood disease by speaking to sufferers themselves. It is hoped that new treatment practices could be developed by speaking with those few people who have suffered from chronic anorexia nervosa and beaten it. "Most knowledge of recovery from chronic anorexia nervosa comes from the outside perspective of investigators and clinicians, which limits our understanding of the disease to what researchers assume to be important," Dawson says. "We need to find an adequate model that reflects the evolution of chronic anorexia nervosa from the patient's perspective." A better understanding of chronic anorexia nervosa is particularly important when considering the devastating impact of the disease on its victims. Studies have revealed that of surviving patients, less than half of those diagnosed with anorexia nervosa do well over time - approximately 30 percent improve but continue to experience symptoms while 20 percent remain chronically ill. Those with chronic anorexia nervosa have the worst outcomes, as the more time victims spend with the disease, the less likely they are to recover from it.