Autism and Eating Disorders – CAMHS around the Campfire

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For this session we are pleased to welcome Dr. Francesca Solmi, UCL, and also Dr. Lisa Dinkler, Karolinska Institutet to discuss her paper on Autism and Eating Disorders.

We will be looking at Dr. Francesca Solmi’s JCPP paper ‘Trajectories of autistic social traits in childhood and adolescence and disordered eating behaviours at age 14 years: A UK general population cohort study’.  doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13255

Plus, also discussing Dr. Lisa Dinkler’s JCPP paper on ‘Anorexia nervosa and autism: a prospective twin cohort study’. doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13265

A panel, comprising paper author Dr. Francesca Solmi, University College London, Dr. Lisa Dinkler, Karolinska Institutet, and a lived experience perspective from the McPin Foundation, will discuss the research and its implications with information scientist Douglas Badenoch. This discussion will be facilitated by Andre Tomlin.

To get the most from the session we suggest reading the following resources;

About #CAMHScampfire

ACAMH’s vision is to be ‘Sharing best evidence, improving practice’, to this end in December 2020 we launched ‘CAMHS around the Campfire’, a free monthly virtual journal club, run in conjunction with André Tomlin. We use #CAMHScampfire on Twitter to amplify the discussion.

Each 1-hour meeting features a new piece of research, which we discuss in an informal journal club session. The focus is on critical appraisal of the research and implications for practice. Primarily targeted at CAMHS practitioners, and researchers, ‘CAMHS around the Campfire’ will be publicly accessible, free to attend, and relevant to a wider audience.

About the panel

Dr. Francesca Solmi. My research broadly focuses on studying the risk factors for the development of eating disorders across the life-span. As part of my Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship I am studying whether inflammation – conceptualisd as exposure to prenatal and childhood infections, high genetic risk, autoimmunity – increases a person’s risk of developing eating disorders. To do this, I use large general population datasets, including both biological and environmental data, and causal inference methods. I am also interested in studying inequalities in access to services and evaluating the effectiveness of current treatments for eating disorders using electronic medical records.

I teach on the following MSc programmes offered by UCL MSc in Mental Health Sciences (UCL Division of Psychiatry): Core research methods module; Epidemiology module, Statistics module (as a teaching assistant) MSc in Child and Adolescent Mental Health (UCL, Institute of Child Health); Epidemiological research methods in child & adolescent mental health. I welcome inquiries about PhD and MSc projects. Bio and image via UCL website.

Dr. Lisa Dinkler graduated from the PhD program at the University of Gothenburg in December 2020 and is now a postdoc at Karolinska Institutet. Her PhD project investigated the development and course of eating disorders in association to neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), and the mechanisms underlying the overlap of eating disorders and NDDs. Applying twin methodology Lisa studies the extent to which genetic and environmental factors are shared between eating disorders and NDDs. In a large birth cohort of Japanese preschool children she investigates the prevalence and course of a wide range of childhood eating problems, including Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), and their association with NDDs. Lisa’s research also explores neuropsychological factors underlying the social difficulties common to eating disorders and NDDs with the help of eye-tracking methodology.

Professor Helen Minnis and Lisa Dinkler discuss their paper “Maltreatment-associated neurodevelopmental disorders: a co-twin control analysis” published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.