(provided by candidate): The proposed Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23) is a five-year plan to develop the candidate into an independent researcher in the early identification and treatment of anorexia nervosa (AN). The candidate outlines a training application integrating formal coursework and mentorship from expert investigators in prevention, intervention, eating disorders, and developmental psychopathology that will enable the candidate to: (1) acquire knowledge in child and adolescent development necessary to design developmentally sensitive strategies for case identification and prevention of AN; (2) learn about prevention science and the developmental psychopathology of AN; (3) develop expertise in family functioning and family intervention techniques pertinent to AN families; and (4) obtain advanced skills in the ethics, design, implementation and analysis of randomized clinical trials to test the durability of preventive and early interventions for AN. The primary focus of the research plan will be testing interventions for emerging, clinically significant AN symptoms in children and adolescents. Both acute reduction in extant symptomatology and durability of treatment effects in preventing progression to AN (prophylaxis) over the course of 1.5 years will be examined. The core project will be a controlled clinical trial comparing family treatment (FT) to supportive psychotherapy. The hypothesis is that FT, which has demonstrated efficacy in adolescent AN, will be efficacious earlier in the continuum of prevention and intervention for prodromal AN. Transitions in parenting style will be explored as a mediator of FT, and parental eating pathology as a moderator of FT. The ultimate goal of the proposed program is to prepare the candidate to submit a successful R01 application to test these hypotheses in a larger and sufficiently longitudinal randomized controlled trial.
