Eating disorders are extremely heterogeneous illnesses, meaning that regardless of diagnosis, individuals vary significantly in terms of presenting symptoms, underlying causal mechanisms, and developmental factors. This significant heterogeneity is likely one reason why treatments fail to work for almost 50% of those with an eating disorder diagnosis. Most current evidence-based treatments are nomothetic (i.e., group-level) interventions created based on general research findings that apply to a population of patients. In other words, most treatment manuals are developed based on averages and not on idiographic or individual patient-centered characteristics. Treatments based on averages are a necessary starting point for the development of evidence-based treatments because the ability to successfully reduce pathology in “average” or “common” patients can reduce a significant amount of suffering and pinpoint effective strategies. However, they do not take into account high symptom heterogeneity or treatment personalization based on individual characteristics.
New research both inside and outside of the eating disorder field has begun to use precision psychiatry and idiographic (i.e., one person) methods to better characterize psychiatric illness and develop new data-informed evidence-based personalized treatments. Personalization of treatment is not a new idea and has been called for by major granting institutions, such as the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and leaders in the field of clinical psychology and psychiatry (Fisher, 2015; Wright & Woods, 2020). Indeed, data show that tailored treatment produce longer-lasting and more effective outcomes relative to treatments based on averages (Eskildsen et al., 2020).
The goal of this special collection is to showcase advances in precision psychiatry and personalized medicine/treatment in the eating disorders. We especially are interested in papers using idiographic methods to characterize eating disorders, new treatment developments, and explorations of how to implement precision psychiatry in practice.
This Collection welcomes submission of case reports, commentaries, original research, reviews, and study protocols.
