The Principal Research Fellowship of one of the world's leading eating disorder researchers, Professor Chris Fairburn, has been renewed.

Professor Fairburn and his colleagues at the University of Oxford pioneered the use of a 'talking therapy', cognitive behavioural therapy for bulimia nervosa (CBT–BN), a severe eating disorder. In 2004, CBT–BN was the first psychological intervention to be recognised by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) as the leading treatment for a clinical condition and recommended for use in the NHS.

Professor Fairburn has recently developed an 'enhanced' form of cognitive behavioural therapy that may also be suitable for treatment of the full range of severe eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa. The new funding will enable his team to test the enhanced therapy and its possible mechanisms of action.

Image credit: Fiona Pragoff