To: The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

We are writing to you as clinicians, researchers and people affected by eating disorders to call for an urgent and sustained increase in investment in eating disorders research.

A Hidden Epidemic with Life-Threatening Consequences

Eating disorders are a serious, escalating public health concern, estimated to affect at least 4 million people in the UK, with prevalence rising since the pandemic. They cause untold suffering for patients and their families and can lead to lifelong disability or death. Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric condition.

The total economic and social cost of eating disorders in the UK is estimated at £9.4 billion each year, including pressure on NHS services, welfare systems, education, employment and families.

Lack of Research Investment Costing Lives, and Vital NHS Funds

Despite their scale, severity, and cost, eating disorders remain one of the most underfunded areas of mental health research. They receive just 1% of the UK’s mental health research budget, less than any other mental health condition. In fact, only £1 per person per year is invested into eating disorders research, compared to £12 for depression and £57 for psychosis.

This level of underinvestment is not proportionate to the harm caused by eating disorders. It is also not sustainable for public services. The current approach means the UK continues to spend heavily on the consequences of eating disorders, rather than investing in the research needed to prevent illness, intervening earlier and reducing long-term costs.

Without sustained investment in research, the UK will continue to pay for eating disorders at the most expensive point: when people are already severely unwell. By this time, treatment is more complex, hospital care is more likely, and the long-term costs to the NHS, welfare system, education and workforce are far higher.

This aligns directly with national priorities. A national eating disorder research strategy would support the shift from crisis intervention to preventative care, from sickness to prevention, and from avoidable long-term costs to earlier, evidence-based support.

The Urgent Need for a Long-Term Eating Disorders Research Strategy

We have a clear and achievable path forward. We call on the UK Government to commit to a long-term, coordinated eating disorders research investment strategy, including:

A portfolio of project, programme, and strategic grants to accelerate eating disorders research into prevention and relapse prevention, early diagnosis, treatment, and service delivery.

Sustainable funding to establish a UK-wide network of eating disorders research centres, with dedicated research hubs across the UK to support recruitment, data infrastructure, clinical trials, service evaluation and collaboration with NHS services.

Support to develop and retain the next generation of eating disorder researchers, including early-career researchers, clinicians and interdisciplinary teams.

We are calling for an initial commitment of at least £50 million over ten years as a minimum funding level, with a five-year review.

This is not an open-ended spending commitment. It is a targeted, time limited and reviewable investment designed to build research capacity, improve care and test value for money.

A five-year review would allow progress to be assessed against clear outcomes, including research capacity, clinical trial activity, evidence-based service improvements, reduced delays in diagnosis and treatment, NHS cost savings, and improved outcomes for patients and families.

Eating Disorders Research Delivers Actionable Service Improvements

There is clear evidence that investment in eating disorders research delivers demonstrable results. First Episode Rapid Early Intervention for Eating Disorders (FREED) is an evidence-based early intervention model which scaled from one NHS Trust in 2014 to 54 Trusts in 2025, with research support. Over this time, 6,370 young adults received support from FREED, with estimated annual savings to the NHS of around £14.7 million since 2020.

FREED provides proof of principle that research-supported models can be scaled through the NHS and deliver measurable savings. The question is no longer whether research can make a difference, but whether there is the sustained investment needed to replicate and extend that impact.

A Strong Foundation to Work From

The UK has historically been at the forefront of eating disorders research, producing evidence that underpins treatment models used around the world. But that leadership is now at risk. Without sustained investment, the UK risks losing research capacity, clinical expertise and opportunities to develop better, more cost-effective care.

Why Increased Research Funding is so Essential

The potential benefits of additional, proportionate investment are substantial:

Reduce avoidable hospital admissions and pressure on NHS services, particularly costly inpatient care.

Improve prevention, early diagnosis and early intervention, helping to prevent eating disorders from becoming severe or chronic.

Develop treatments that work for more people, improving recovery rates and reducing relapse, long-term disability and premature death.

Increase productivity and educational attainment, especially among young people.

Reduce long-term welfare, health and productivity costs, delivering economic savings that far outweigh the initial investment.

Retain UK research talent and protect the UK’s position as a global leader in eating disorder research.

Eating disorders often begin during adolescence and early adulthood — a critical period for education, employment and the transition to independent life. Without better prevention, diagnosis and treatment, too many young people risk losing years of education, work and social development, with consequences that extend far beyond the health system.

Eating disorders are treatable. Recovery is possible. But without the research needed to improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, too many people will continue to fall through the cracks — and the NHS, families, and the wider economy will continue to carry the cost.

By committing at least £50 million over ten years to a coordinated, long-term research strategy, the UK Government can change the lives of millions of people, support NHS sustainability, reduce long-term costs, and maintain our position as a global leader in eating disorders research.

We urge you to act now.

For a more detailed summary of relevant evidence and costing data, please see our supplementary evidence brief below.

Supplementary Evidence brief: the case for urgent investment in eating disorders research

Executive Summary

Eating disorders affect at least 4 million people in the UK and are associated with severe illnesses, disability and premature death. They are estimated to cost the UK £9.4 billion every year yet receive just 1% of the UK mental health research budget.

This represents a major mismatch between disease burden, public cost and research investment. Current funding is fragmented, short-term and insufficient to build the research infrastructure needed to improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment and service delivery at national scale.

A coordinated eating disorders research investment strategy would support national priorities on prevention, NHS sustainability, young people's mental health, productivity and the UK's position as a global leader in eating disorder research.

We are calling for an initial commitment of at least £50 million over ten years as a minimum funding level, with a five-year review to assess progress, value for money and future need.

The Scale and the Cost of Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are not a single condition. They encompass a range of serious psychiatric illnesses — anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder (BED), avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED), pica, and rumination disorder. These conditions have distinct aetiologies, clinical presentations, affected populations and treatment needs.

Collectively, eating disorders are estimated to affect at least 4 million people in the UK (All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eating Disorders, 2025; NHS-England, 2019). Prevalence has risen sharply since 2019, driven by both genuine increases — particularly among young people after the COVID-19 pandemic — and improved recognition (Trafford et al., 2023).

Eating disorders carry severe long-term consequences: chronicity, disability, and premature death. Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder (Arcelus et al., 2011). The total annual economic and social cost of eating disorders in the UK is estimated at £9.4 billion (Hearts, Minds & Genes Coalition for Eating Disorders, 2021). This includes pressure on NHS services, welfare systems, education, employment and families.

The UK's Track Record — and What is Now at Risk

The UK has historically been at the forefront of eating disorders research. Much of the evidence base that underpins current clinical practice worldwide originated from UK research groups. Most of the NICE-recommended treatments for eating disorders originated in the UK, from family-based and interpersonal treatment approaches for anorexia nervosa (FT-AN and the Maudsley Anorexia Nervosa Treatment for Adults [MANTRA]) to cognitive behavioural treatment models (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2017).

UK groups have led foundational work on the genetic and neurobiological architecture of these conditions and developed the evidence-based FREED early intervention model (First Episode Rapid Early Intervention for Eating Disorders), and the Pathway for Eating Disorders and Autism developed from Clinical Experience (PEACE). This leadership was built over decades through sustained clinical-academic collaboration, investment in infrastructure, and world-class researchers.

That position is now at serious risk. The Beat/APPG "Breaking the Cycle" report (2021) documented a vicious cycle: chronic underfunding has led to a small and shrinking researcher base, fewer publications, weakened competitiveness for grants, and further decline in funding. Without reinvestment, the UK's capacity to lead in this field will erode within a decade, and the translation of research into improved clinical care will stall at the exact point when rising prevalence demands the opposite.

The Funding Gap

Eating disorders — taken together as an entire group of conditions — receive approximately 1% of UK mental health research expenditure (MQ: Transforming Mental Health, 2018; Woelbert et al., 2020; van Furth et al., 2016). This means that a diverse family of serious psychiatric illnesses, each requiring its own evidence base for prevention and treatment, collectively receives a fraction of the funding allocated to conditions such as depression (7.2%) or psychosis (4.9%) (van Furth et al., 2016).

Put differently: Today, eating disorder research receives just £1.39 per affected person per year from UK-based research funders. 8× less than depression (£11.52) and 21× less than psychosis (£29.35). The gap is most extreme in clinical trials, where depression receives 49 times more funding than eating disorders. Even excluding trials entirely, the research funding disparity from major UK funders remains astonishing: £1.04 per person for eating disorders vs £4.56 for depression and £16.41 for psychosis. Conditions such as binge eating disorder and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder have especially limited research funding, despite each representing a substantial clinical population with distinct and unmet treatment needs. Note: the figures represented are based on lifetime prevalence.

Why Government Investment is Needed

Current funding is too fragmented and short-term to build the research infrastructure needed to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment at national scale. Eating disorders research requires sustained investment across multiple conditions, populations, methods and service settings.

Without coordinated investment, progress will continue to depend on isolated projects and short-term grants. This limits the ability to recruit large, well-characterised cohorts, run clinical trials, build data platforms, evaluate services, support implementation and retain specialist research expertise.

The current approach also leaves the UK paying for eating disorders at the most expensive point: when people are already severely unwell, treatment is more complex, hospital care is more likely and long-term disability is harder to prevent.

This is not sustainable for the NHS, public services or the wider economy. A coordinated research strategy would help move the system from late-stage response towards prevention, earlier diagnosis, more effective treatment and better long-term outcomes.

What We Are Asking For:

We call on the Government to commit to a long-term, coordinated eating disorders research investment strategy comprising:

A structured funding portfolio — project, programme, and strategic grants that build cumulative progress across prevention, treatment development, implementation science, and lived experience research, with sufficient scope to address the distinct research needs of different eating disorders rather than treating them as a monolith.

A UK-wide network of eating disorders research centres — coordinated, sustainably funded research hubs across multiple academic institutions, enabling recruitment of large, well-characterised cohorts and interdisciplinary collaboration across the full range of eating disorders. Research funding is currently heavily skewed towards London and the capitals of devolved nations. The diversity of eating disorders is precisely why a UK-wide network model is needed: shared infrastructure (cohorts, biobanks, data platforms) supports condition-specific research programmes that individual project grants cannot sustain.

Research capacity and talent development — support for early-career researchers, clinician-researchers and interdisciplinary teams to develop studies, run trials, analyse data and translate findings into clinical practice, helping to retain specialist experience in the UK.

We call for an initial commitment of at least £50 million over ten years as a minimum funding level, with a five-year review. This is not a request to build from scratch. Recent investments — the £4.25 million Medical Research Foundation/MRC/ESRC/AHRC/NIHR collaborative call for eating disorders research (2023), the Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative (EDGI), and the EDIFY UKRI programme grant — demonstrate that the research community can deliver when funded. What we are asking for is the scaling of proven infrastructure, not the creation of something new.

The Precedent: What Strategic Investment Delivers

This approach mirrors successful UK health research initiatives such as the Prime Minister's Challenge on Dementia. Backed by over £300 million of government investment across five years, the programme transformed a fragmented research landscape into a coordinated national system, creating lasting capacity in patient recruitment, translational research, workforce development, and industry partnership.

We acknowledge the difference in scale between dementia and eating disorders. However, the structural principle is the same: strategic investment builds the research base, infrastructure and clinical pathways that incremental project funding cannot. The £4.25 million collaborative call, EDGI and EDIFY show what is possible at small scale. What is missing is the coordinated, sustained commitment that converts proven capacity into national impact.

The Return on Investment and Cost Avoidance

The UK's 450 adult eating disorder beds are some of the most expensive in mental health services, with an average cost for NHS providers of £101k per admission and an average length of stay of 95 days in 2023/24 (Watkins, 2025).

The annual societal cost of eating disorders to the UK is >£9.4 billion. Research investment directly reduces these costs: early intervention via the England-wide FREED model saved the NHS ~£14.7 million per year between 2020–2023, demonstrating that evidence-based intervention at scale translates into measurable savings (Health Innovation Network, 2023). Even a modest improvement in outcomes would yield savings which vastly outweigh initial research investment. A 1% reduction in the annual societal cost would yield savings of £94 million per year.

Strategic research funding in this area would enable:

Earlier identification and intervention, aligning with the government's 10-year health plan to shift from sickness to prevention. This will reduce progression to severe or longstanding illness across the range of eating disorders, not only anorexia nervosa.

Building the evidence base for pharmaceutical development — eating disorders currently have no drug treatments developed to target core symptoms and there has not been enough research to know if new pharmaceutical treatments may be beneficial.

More effective, evidence-based treatments with improved recovery rates — including for conditions such as avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder and other specified feeding or eating disorder where the current treatment evidence base is limited.

Reduced demand on costly NHS inpatient services, which are currently under severe pressure; this will align with the NHS's plan to shift the balance of patient care from hospital to community.

Gains in productivity and educational attainment, particularly among young people, who are disproportionately affected.

Long-term economic savings substantially exceeding the initial investment.

The Case for Action

Eating disorders are treatable. Recovery is possible. But without the research investment needed to develop prevention, improve diagnosis, and advance treatment across the full range of eating disorders, the NHS faces rising demand it is not resourced to meet.

The UK built much of the evidence base the world relies on for eating disorder treatment. A coordinated research strategy would protect and extend that legacy, transform outcomes for the millions affected, support NHS sustainability, and maintain the UK's position as a global leader in this field.

An eating disorders research investment strategy would directly support wider government priorities, including improving productivity, education and early intervention, as well as reducing suffering, saving lives and building an NHS that is fit for the future.

We urge the Government to act now and help us turn the tide on eating disorders.

References

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eating Disorders. (2021). Breaking the cycle: An inquiry into eating disorder research funding in the UK. Beat. beat.contentfiles.net/media/documents/APPG_Researc...

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eating Disorders. (2025). The Right to Health: People with Eating Disorders are being failed. yumpu.com/en/document/read/69681888/appg-report-th...

Arcelus, J., Mitchell, A. J., Wales, J., & Nielsen, S. (2011). Mortality rates in patients with anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders: a meta-analysis of 36 studies. Archives of general psychiatry, 68(7), 724-731.

Goddard, E., Hibbs, R., Raenker, S., Salerno, L., Arcelus, J., Boughton, N., Connan, F., Goss, K., Laszlo, B., Morgan, J. and Moore, K. (2013). A multi-centre cohort study of short term outcomes of hospital treatment for anorexia nervosa in the UK. BMC psychiatry, 13, 287.

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Hearts, Minds and Genes Coalition for Eating Disorders (2021). The cost of eating disorders in the UK 2019 and 2020. yumpu.com/en/document/read/65877873/the-cost-of-ea...

MQ: Transforming Mental Health. (2018). UK mental health research funding 2014–2017. mqmentalhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/UKMentalHeal...

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National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2017). Eating disorders: Recognition and treatment (NG69). nice.org.uk/guidance/ng69/chapter/Recommendations...

Trafford, A. M., Carr, M. J., Ashcroft, D. M., Chew-Graham, C. A., Cockcroft, E., Cybulski, L., ... & Mok, P. L. (2023). Temporal trends in eating disorder and self-harm incidence rates among adolescents and young adults in the UK in the 2 years since onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: a population-based study. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 7(8), 544-554.

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van Furth, E. F., van der Meer, A., & Cowan, K. (2016). Top 10 research priorities for eating disorders. The lancet psychiatry, 3(8), 706-707.

Watkins, S. (2025). Addressing the Treatment Gap in UK Eating Disorders, Learning from International Strategies.

Woelbert, E., White, R., Lundell-Smith, K., Grant, J., & Kemmer, D. (2020). The Inequities of Mental Health Research (IAMHRF) (Version 2). Digital Science. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13055897.v2