Groundbreaking eating disorder research in danger of shutting down

3AW Breakfast’s Rumour File heard that a Melbourne-based research team behind groundbreaking eating disorder intervention research is in danger of shutting down.

The promising research involves a method of brain stimulation which has been trialled for the first time by Orygen researchers to treat anorexia.

Press PLAY to hear why the project is at risk

Head of Eating Disorders Research at Orygen, Associate Professor Andrea Phillipou told 3AW Breakfast “funding is incredibly difficult, I think for anyone to get, and it’s even more difficult in the mental health conditions and in eating disorders specifically”.

“There’s still a lot of stigma around eating disorders, particularly anorexia nervosa, being seen as this sort of trivial thing that young females have and that it’s not a real condition.”

“But it is a very real and very serious psychiatric condition with the highest death rate of any mental illness,” Phillipou continued.

Image: Orygen/Supplied