Improving the lives of people with an eating disorder and autism

Thanks to you, we’ve funded ground-breaking research by Professor Kate Tchanturia MBE from King’s College London, which has led to the development of PEACE (a ‘Pathway for Eating disorders and Autism developed from Clinical Experience’), a pioneering new clinical pathway. To recognise Kate’s incredible impact on the lives of people with eating disorders and autism, she received an MBE in the 2025 New Year Honours.

How do eating disorders and autism overlap?

“There are lots of overlapping symptoms in anorexia and autism, including inflexible thinking styles and difficulties in social and emotional areas, such as recognising your own emotions, expressing them, and interacting with others,” says Kate.

In one Foundation-funded study, Kate recruited and tested over 170 young women with current diagnoses of anorexia nervosa, a group who had recovered from the disorder, and a ‘healthy’ control group. Her team explored data from brain scans and interviews to examine the interlinked effects of anorexia, autism and ageing.

“Through this study, we wanted to help clarify whether current diagnostic tools are valid and reliable for identifying women who have autism, on top of the eating disorder we know they have already.”

“We hope our findings will support clinicians to identify vulnerable patients, at an early stage, who may be unlikely to respond to current eating disorders treatments and require individualised support instead.”

The need for individual, personalised treatments

“We think the presence of both conditions could affect eating disorder recovery, and predict a more chronic course of illness,” Kate explains.

Many patients with eating disorders like anorexia nervosa do not respond to available treatments. Research suggests that the co-occurrence of autism could be a key contributing factor.

“It is really important to determine if a person with an eating disorder has autism as well, because it has a massive impact on how we design our clinical care. People with both anorexia and autism usually require beds in treatment facilities for a longer period, and often, these patients still suffer severe outcomes following discharge from clinics.”

Research from Kate’s group shows that patients with both disorders may benefit from different types of treatment that incorporate social skills and emotional awareness training, as well as the use of distinct communicative styles.

Where does PEACE come in?

PEACE was set up to support people with both an eating disorder and autism, as well as their carers and clinicians. The pathway is adapting standard treatments to make clinical practices more suitable for neuro-diverse requirements. This will help to address the social and emotional challenges faced by patients with both conditions when undergoing treatment.

Patients on the PEACE pathway spend significantly less time in hospital compared to those without it. It is estimated that this has saved the healthcare system nearly £275,000 over the course of just a year. Through close engagement with NHS eating disorders services and autism working groups, Kate and her team are working hard to share PEACE-related findings and resources. They want to continue promoting personalised care for people with co-occurring autism and eating disorders.

So far, Kate and her team have trained over 3,000 professionals across national and international eating disorder services. They have also implemented the PEACE pathway in a range of new clinical settings, including NHS trusts in Birmingham and Scotland, and other health systems in Australia and Canada.