Research


The COPE lab’s research has a strong emphasis on improving treatment outcomes and creating effective and practical treatment support tools. The COPE lab uses state-of-the-art mobile-health (mHealth)technology to conduct ground-breaking research to improve the lives of people with eating disorders and their supporters (therapists and parents). Additionally, the COPE lab heavily incorporates evidence-based treatment within our research. 

COPE Research

College students are an at-risk group for developing eating disorders, yet many college campuses lack sufficient resources to provide ED specialty care. The COPE lab created a new mobile-phone application to supplement outpatient treatment for KU students with eating-disorder concerns (e.g., body-image problems; compulsive, unhealthy exercise; binge eating; under-eating). This application, BEST-U, provides Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-guided self-help (CBT-gsh) material to supplement health coaching sessions via a user-friendly mobile-phone app. Other studies have found that CBT-gsh delivered through a companion book can reduce binge eating and purging rates by almost 60%.  Alongside the app, students receive  individualized support from a trained BEST-U Coach throughout our 11-week treatment period. We hope that BEST-U will become an effective and accessible form of treatment for college students with eating disorder concerns at other universities around the country.  

If you are interested in participating, or have any questions, you may contact us at cope@ku.edu, or take our eligibility survey here

The STAR study is an NIH-funded R34 grant that is designed to develop and test a new clinical-decision support tool and adaptive mobile health (mHealth) intervention for adolescents recently discharged from intensive treatment for anorexia nervosa (AN). The goal of the project is to support therapists and their clients to improve outpatient treatment response and reduce relapse in the post-discharge window. The study has two phases. The first phase will gather feedback about our new clinical-decision support tool and mHealth intervention from therapists, clients with anorexia nervosa, and parents of teens who have (or had) AN. The second phase will involve testing the intervention with therapists who treat outpatients with AN and their teenage clients who were recently discharged from intensive treatment. We are excited about this project because with rates of eating disorders increasing substantially in teens since the pandemic, therapists and clients need support tools more than ever! We hope that this program will give therapists and teens the tools they need to fight back and win the battle with AN.

If you are the guardian of a teen with anorexia nervosa, or a therapist treating teens with AN, and are interested in participating in our focus groups, or would like more information, you may contact us at star@ku.edu

 

 

The Eating Pathology Symptoms Inventory (EPSI) is a self-report questionnaire created by Dr. Kelsie Forbush in 2013 to assess eating, weight, and shape concerns. Although our recent research suggests the EPSI is valid in teenagers (see Richson et al., 2021), we are working on developing an extended version for use in older children.  To expand the utility of the EPSI and address the need for strong eating- and feeding-disorder assessment for youth, we are developing a child and teen version of the questionnaire (called the EPSI CHaT).

 

We will be recruiting children and teens between the ages of 10 and 18 years old for this study. Eligible children and teens will be invited to complete the EPSI CHaTT and other similar questionnaires. If you are a parent and are interested in having your child participate or would like more information, you may contact us at eatstudy@ku.edu, and we will put you on our waitlist and notify you once our eligibility survey launches