Saakshi

‘It’s the perfect storm’: why are people with eating disorders at risk of suicide? A qualitative study - BMC Medicine Background Eating disorders (EDs) are associated with elevated all-cause mortality, with suicide cited as the second leading cause of death among individuals with EDs. Evidence suggests that individua...

📢New research 📢 Our new qualitative study provides the first in-depth study exploring individuals experiences and views regarding why people with eating disorders are at risk of suicide. bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
@saakshikakar.bsky.social @mrtzhrl.bsky.social
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@edgiuk.bsky.social EDGI UK paper alert - in this paper RA and PhD student Saakshi Kakar worked on using the free text responses in EDGI and also the GLAD study @gladstudy.bsky.social to find new information about eating disorder symptoms.

Thank you for highlighting my work and for all your support 💜

@kingsioppn.bsky.social @topherhuebel.bsky.social @helenadavies.bsky.social @karina-maudsley.bsky.social @psychgenomics.bsky.social

🙌 Thanks to @edgiuk.bsky.social and @gladstudy.bsky.social participants who shared their experiences. Their voices are helping shape more accurate, compassionate eating disorder care

Thanks to my co-authors and to @nihrbioresource.bsky.social @nihrmaudsleybrc.bsky.social for their support

It's time for eating disorder assessment tools to evolve to reflect a wider range of experiences and behaviours

📚 Read the full paper: t.co/oueBVUngwB

So why does this matter?
🧩 When behaviours fall outside current symptom checklists, people may be misdiagnosed or missed altogether

We argue for more inclusive, flexible assessment tools, which anticipate variation and are informed by lived experience

📌 Notably, 81 people with #BingeEatingDisorder described engaging in weight loss or compensatory behaviours - challenging current assumptions and diagnostic boundaries.

Three-step diagram illustrating parts of the data analysis process. Step 3, 'Grouping and recoding,' categorises 'Weight loss groups' into 'Slimming world,' 'Weight watchers,' and 'Diet groups.' Step 4, 'Reviewing the tokens,' is represented by an icon of three people sitting around a table in discussion. Step 5, 'Defining and naming themes,' is shown as a network diagram with interconnected nodes.

We grouped responses into 4 main themes:
▶️Restriction-based approaches
▶️Medical intervention
▶️Body manipulation
▶️Food avoidance

These behaviours appeared across diagnoses and genders, suggesting they’re more common than diagnostic tools reflect.

Two-part diagram illustrating steps in data processing. Part 1, titled 'Merging dataframes,' shows three blue database icons connected by red lines, representing the merging process. Part 2, titled 'Preprocessing,' features a funnel labelled 'Responses' at the top. Inside the funnel, arrows indicate stages: 'Tokenisation,' 'Removing stop words,' and 'Stemming.' An arrow at the bottom points to the word 'Tokens'.

📊 We text-mined 1,675 responses from participants in
@gladstudy.bsky.social & @edgiuk.bsky.social who had anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge-eating disorder

Many described behaviours that weren’t part of standard clinical or research assessments, but were harmful and clinically relevant

A screenshot from the International Journal of Eating Disorders of an original article called, "Beyond the Diagnostic Checklist: A Large-Scale Analysis of Under-Recognized Weight Loss Behaviors in Individuals With Eating Disorders"

🚨New paper alert!

In my first first-author paper for my #PhD, we explored free-text responses from 1,600+ people with #eatingdisorders to better understand the diverse behaviours used to lose weight, many of which fall outside diagnostic criteria

Here's what we found👇

In case you missed it yesterday!

⭐️ #IoPPNfestival MEGA-THREAD ⭐️

Everything that happened at the 2025 @kingsioppn.bsky.social Research Festival

Brilliant skeeted by my elfin colleague @saakshikakar.bsky.social 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Great job Saakshi! Cheers, André

Involving people from all communities in mental health research We need to involve people from all communities in mental health research. It’s #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek and the theme this year is COMMUNITY.In the past, m...

We need to involve people from all communities in mental health research.

It’s #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek and the theme this year is COMMUNITY.

🧵 THREAD

We are IN-PERSON in London next week for the #IoPPNfestival, sharing transformative research from @kingsioppn.bsky.social

Join @saakshikakar.bsky.social using the #IoPPNfestival hashtag from 2 pm on Wednesday, 14th May! THREAD

Thanks so much for sharing our study!

Beyond the Checklist: A large-scale analysis of under-recognised weight loss behaviours in individuals with eating disorders Objective This study aimed to identify and categorise under-recognised weight loss behaviours in individuals with eating disorders, addressing diagnostic gaps. Method We text mined free-text response...

✨""Beyond the Checklist: A large-scale analysis of under-recognised weight loss behaviours in individuals with eating disorders""

Saakshi Kakar's important exploration of under-recognised weight loss behaviours in individuals with #eatingdisorders
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

1/5 👇

IoPPN Research Festival - Bridging disciplines, brain to behaviour An annual showcase of exciting and innovative research celebrating academic success across the IoPPN.

We’re delighted to announce that @saakshikakar.bsky.social will be donning her elf hat and reporting live from the 2025 #IoPPNfestival at @kingsioppn.bsky.social on Wed 14th May

Check out the programme and get your FREE ticket now! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ioppn-rese...
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