Addressing the chronicity of eating disorders (ED) and the treatment of long-term patients - one of the health problems that receives most attention in terms of care and research - is one of the main themes of the international symposium to be held in the Paranymph Hall of the Historic Building of the University of Barcelona on 25 September.
The conference, which will be opened by the rector, Joan Guàrdia, is promoted by Fernando Fernández Aranda, professor at the UB's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, head of the Eating Disorders Unit of the Bellvitge University Hospital (HUB) and member of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), and Susana Jiménez Murcia, professor at the same Faculty, head of the Clinical Psychology Service of the HUB and also a member of IDIBELL.
Nearly three hundred experts in clinical psychology and mental health will participate in this international forum, which will feature a dozen of the world's leading experts in this field of research. Jane Treasure, from King's College (University of London); Stephen Wonderlich, from the University of North Dakota Daniel Le Grange, from the University of California (United States);; Angela Favaro, from the University of Padova (Italy); Howard Steiger, from McGill University (Canada), and Stephen Touyz, from the University of Sydney (Australia), are some of the speakers at the symposium. During the symposium, the most up-to-date studies and treatments on ED will be presented and discussed, as well as the risk factors in the management of these disorders, both at child, adolescent and adult levels, and the positive and negative predictors of the treatments.
Eating disorders mainly affect women, starting in adolescence or early adulthood. They are multi-causal, with psychological, biological and socio-cultural factors. The incidence and clinical complexity of ED have increased in recent years, especially since the pandemic confinement.
In this scenario, current therapeutic approaches offer limited results that favour a trend towards chronicity in patients who are more resistant to the usual treatment. As Fernández Aranda says, "this is a highly topical and worrying issue worldwide, due to the lack of consensus and guidelines on how to approach these cases and, for this reason, we will dedicate a specific forum for debate at the conference".
This year, the Department of Health has launched the first specific unit to treat the adult population with highly complex and long-lasting ED. Located at the Hospital Sagrat Cor - Germanes Hospitalàries de Martorell, it is managed jointly with the specialized unit of Bellvitge.
The conference is organized by the HUB, the UB, the Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBEROBN), the Hospital Sagrat Cor - Germanes Hospitalàries Martorell, IDIBELL, the eating disorders section of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), and SumaMent+, an initiative of the Health Plan of the Metropolitan Territorial Region.
