Professor Andreas Karwautz elected President of the Eating Disorders Research Society

The Eating Disorder Research Society (www.edrs.org) is the most prestigious international organisation for researchers working in the field of eating disorders - with an interest in anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder and obesity. The purpose of the organisation is to hold an annual scientific meeting during which the most recent research in the field is presented and discussed.

Andreas Karwautz is a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapeutic medicine at the Medical University of Vienna. He is also a specialist in psychiatry, neurology and child and adolescent psychiatry at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at MedUni Vienna and University Hospital Vienna. He founded a division for eating disorders in children and adolescents there in 1993. In adddition he is Psychotherapist. Andreas Karwautz has experience working on national and international committees and in organizing more than 45 international events. He is co-convenor of the annual “International Congress Eating Disorders Alpbach”, Tyrol, Austria, since 2012. He was congress president of the “18th International Congress auf the European Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry” in Hofburg Vienna, Austria, in 2019 with more than 1600 participants. In 2009 he has founded and since then organizes 15 “International Eating Disorders Conferences – “Vienna Eating Disorders Congress” (2009-2025: 3 full days congress): https://essstoerungen.medacad.org/ with up to 550 participants.

Andreas Karwautz leads the Eating Disorders Research Group at Medical University Vienna, which aims to find out more about the biological and psychological causes and consequences of eating disorders and comorbid conditions in order to develop innovation in treatment. His research lab includes postdoctoral research workers, PhD students, Doctoral Clinical psychology trainees, MSc students and international academic visitors. Karwautz is a fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED), he is Associate Editor of the Journal „European Eating Disorder Review“ and Editor-in-chief of „neuropsychiatrie“.

Congress EDRS 2026 in Vienna
He is delighted to oversee the scientific programme of Congress EDRS 2026 to be held in Vienna. It is one of the most important organisations in our field and I hope the conference in Vienna in September 2026 will be stimulating for everyone in our filed, from young researchers to senior professionals.

The scientific program we would love to compile should include high quality talks with symposia and scientific posters under the general heading: “New treatments and services for Eating Disorders” on several topics: New psychotherapeutic interventions (e.g. virtual reality measures, Radical-open DBT, multifamily approaches, MANTRa, emotion processing). Linking behavior and neurobiology, social sciences, genetics, inflammation measures with psychotherapeutic interventions. New guidelines and treatment innovations beyond clinical guidelines. Treatment settings and their influence on outcome (e.g. home-treatments, community-based services). View of lived experience communities on eating disorders treatment. New biological treatments (e.g. neuromodulation, TMS, metreleptin, probiotics, ketamine, psilocybin). Prevention strategies.

„EDRS mainly takes place in the USA, bringing it back to Europe is a big responsibility and I hope international visitors will enjoy the content and context of EDRS 2026. I hope that researchers from all countries will benefit from the excellent networking opportunity and multidisciplinary cutting-edge science“.