Janet Treasure: Eating Disorders

Professor Janet Treasure

Director of the Eating Disorder Unit at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, and at the South London Maudsley Hospital NHS Trust. The unit is active in research and development in all aspects of eating disorders treatment, biology, clinical problems etc. She is also Professor of Psychiatry at Guys Hospital, Kings & St Thomas Medical School, London.

Professor Treasure is a psychiatrist who has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders for over twenty years.

The Eating Disorder Unit at the South London Maudsley Hospital NHS Trust is a leading centre in clinical management and training of eating disorders. The unit provides eating disorder services for a population of 2 million in south East London and accepts specialists referrals from throughout out the United Kingdom.

Professor Treasure was chairman of the Physical treatment section of the UK NICE guideline committee. She is the Chief Medical Officer for the Eating Disorder Association (the main UK eating disorder charity) and is the trustee of the Sheffield eating disorders association. She is on the Academy of eating disorders accreditation committee. She has also been active in both research over this time and has over 150 peer reviewed papers. In 2004 was honoured to be awarded the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED) Leadership Award in Research (This award honors an individual who has over substantial period of time ( i.e., 10 years or more) developed through research new knowledge about eating disorders that is internationally respected and that has had a measurable impact on the field, either by significantly furthering our understanding of the etiology of eating disorders, by changing treatment or by fostering new lines of research).

Professor Treasure has been a co-coordinator of a multicentre European study that is examining the genetic and environmental factors in the management of eating disorders. Professor Treasure was also Vice Chairman of a European project examining the effectiveness of treatment of eating disorders in over 20 countries.

Professor Treasure has edited four texts on eating disorders "Neurobiology in the Treatment of Eating Disorders" Ed Hoek K, Treasure J, Katzman M (1997) & "Handbook on Eating Disorders," Szmukler G, Dare C & Treasure (1995) (edition 1 &2) Wiley and, Owen, Treasure & Collier (2001) "Animal Models of Eating behaviour and body composition," Kluwer Academic Publishers The Netherlands. She has authored 2 self help books, one on bulimia nervosa "Getting better bite by bite" and one for parents and teachers as well as sufferers themselves on anorexia nervosa "Anorexia nervosa; a survival guide for families, friends and sufferers". She is working on developing manuals & CD Roms to describe working with individuals and families of people with anorexia nervosa. The ethos of both the research and clinical practice is to work collaboratively with carers and users and to use new technology to further this endeavour.

The web site http://eatingresearch.com hosts information for all stakeholders, users, carers and professionals.