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Review
. 2025 Apr 9;13(1):63.
doi: 10.1186/s40337-025-01246-6.

Treating the individual: moving towards personalised eating disorder care

Emma Bryant  1 , Peta Marks  2 , Kristi Griffiths  2 , Stephanie Boulet  2 , Melissa Pehlivan  2 , Sarah Barakat  2 , Stephen Touyz  2 , Sarah Maguire  2
Affiliations
Review

Treating the individual: moving towards personalised eating disorder care

Emma Bryant et al. J Eat Disord. .

Abstract

Eating disorders (EDs) are complex and heterogeneous conditions, which are often not resolved with conventional, manualised treatments. Arguments for the development of holistic, person-centred treatments accounting for individual variability have been mounting amongst researchers, clinicians and people with lived experience alike. This review explores the transformative potential of personalised medicine in ED care, emphasising the integration of precision diagnostics and tailored interventions based on individual genetic, biological, psychological and environmental profiles. Building on advancements in genomics, neurobiology, and computational technologies, it advocates for a shift from categorical diagnostic frameworks to symptom-based and dimensional approaches. The paper summarises emerging evidence supporting precision psychiatry, including the development of biomarkers, patient-reported outcomes, predictive modelling, and staging models, and discusses their application in ED research and clinical care. It highlights the utility of machine learning and idiographic statistical methods in optimising therapeutic outcomes and identifies key challenges, such as ethical considerations, scalability and implementation.

Keywords: Eating disorders; Holistic care; Idiographic; Individualised medicine; Person-centred; Personalised medicine; Precision diagnostics; Precision psychiatry.

Plain language summary

Traditional eating disorder (ED) treatment approaches often use a “one-size-fits-all” method, despite the fact EDs are complex and can vary greatly from person to person. This review discusses how personalised treatment can transform care for people with EDs. Personalised care tailors treatment to each person’s unique biology, mental health, and life circumstances, with the understanding that a more flexible and individualised approach could lead to better outcomes. We explore new discoveries in genetic research, machine learning, and advanced tracking methods to predict how someone might respond to specific treatments and identify what works best for them. We also emphasise the importance of addressing changes in the illness experience over time and including patients’ perspectives in their care. While these approaches show great promise, challenges remain, such as ensuring we have evidence to guide effective personalisation, and that treatments are ethical, widely available and easy for clinicians to use. The paper highlights a future where ED treatments are more precise, effective, and adapted to the individual, offering new hope for recovery.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Human ethics and consent to participate: Not applicable. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: S.T. receives royalties from Taylor and Francis, Hogrefe and Huber and McGraw Hill for published book chapters. He has received honoraria from Shire/ Takeda Group of Companies for chairing the Australian Clinical Advisory Board for Binge Eating Disorder, public speaking engagements, commissioned reports as well as investigator- initiated research grants. He is an Editor in Chief of this journal, an inaugural committee member of the National Eating Disorders Collaboration, a Member of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Eating Disorders (Commonwealth of Australia) and a member of the governing council of the Australian Eating Disorders Research and Translation Centre. PM receives royalties from Elsevier for published textbooks. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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