Minding the Gaps: What Overlooked OSFED Can Reveal About Eating Disorders

Description

30 minute presentation at international online symposium to public, practictioners, medics and researchers

Session Overview
OSFED is one of the most common eating-disorder diagnoses, yet remains comparatively overlooked in research, diagnostic thinking and public understanding. Ruth will ask how and why these knowledge gaps have developed, and what may be missed when OSFED is understood mainly in relation to better-known diagnoses such as anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder. Drawing on critical analysis of research, diagnostic criteria and lived experience, she will explore how gaps in evidence can shape the stories we tell about eating disorders and whose experiences become visible. Rather than treating OSFED as a diagnostic remainder, the session asks what taking it seriously might teach us about eating disorders across the spectrum.
Aims / Outcomes
• Explore why OSFED remains comparatively neglected despite its prevalence and seriousness
• Consider how gaps in evidence and diagnostic frameworks shape eating-disorder understanding
• Examine what OSFED may reveal about experiences across the wider eating-disorder spectrum

Period	12 Feb 2027
Held at	VOXED Voices of Eating Disorders Experience, United Kingdom
Degree of Recognition	International