Eating disorders are serious mental health problems, affecting primarily adolescent girls and young adult women. The public health significance of eating disorders derives from the fact that they are common among adolescent girls, often take a chronic course, are associated with psychiatric comorbidity and lasting adverse health outcomes such as infertility and osteoporosis, and contribute to elevated health services utilization. Because eating disorder research has a relatively short history, challenges remain in the field concerning the recruitment and education of young scholars into research careers in eating disorders. Training of new investigators has been identified as a priority concern in several NIMH funded workshops in the field. The multifactorial etiology and complex clinical picture of eating disorders require the collaboration of experts from a range of disciplines to advance the scientific knowledge base needed for identifying effective treatments and prevention strategies. Moreover, scholars representing racial or ethnic minority groups are under represented in the field. The application seeks to address these challenges with a program intended to stimulate and support interest in research careers in the field. Specifically, support is being requested to a) conduct a Research Teaching Day to be held the day preceding the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED) annual conference, offering an in-depth research seminar and individual mentoring sessions;b) award travel fellowships to ten qualified individuals (outstanding undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and psychiatric residents) to attend the Research Teaching Day and AED conference;and c) invite one speaker per year from an allied field who will enhance the Research Teaching Day by illustrating the principles and practices of translational research. For each component, steps will be taken to integrate training in cultural competence into the curriculum, ensure representation of minority faculty, and recruit racial or ethnic minority fellows. Support is requested for five years, and the success of the program will be evaluated annually.
