The future of research on eating disorders

In the last several decades, research on the eating disorders has yielded important new knowledge, especially regarding the clinical characteristics and the treatment of individuals with Bulimia Nervosa. Challenging issues now confronting the field include how the eating disorders should be categorized, what factors underlie their development and persistence, and how they are best treated. New efforts based on the analysis of genetic factors, on the use of brain imaging and on the detailed analysis of behavioral disturbances hold promise for significantly advancing our understanding of these disorders in the next decade.