Christopher James Alfred Granville Fairburn is a British psychiatrist and researcher. He is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. He is known for his research on the development, evaluation and dissemination of psychological treatments, especially for

eating disorder An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that negatively affect a person's physical or mental health. Only one eating disorder can be diagnosed at a given time. Types of eating disorders include binge eating d ...

Education

Fairburn was educated at

Malvern College Malvern College is an Independent school (United Kingdom), independent coeducational day and boarding school in Malvern, Worcestershire, Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It is a public school (United Kingdom), public school in the British sen ...

. He trained in medicine at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, and in psychiatry at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

Career

Fairburn has been engaged in full-time clinical research since 1981, initially funded by the Medical Research Council and subsequently by the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

(1984-2017). Between 2007 and 2011, Fairburn was a Governor of the

, and from 2011 to 2016, he was a founder trustee of MQ: Transforming Mental Health. Fairburn was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the

2021 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours for 2021 are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded ...

for services to psychological treatments and the treatment of eating disorders.

Research

Eating disorders

Fairburn's programme of work has led to the development of three treatments for

s. The first is a cognitive behavioural treatment for

bulimia nervosa Bulimia nervosa, also known as simply bulimia, is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by purging or fasting, and excessive concern with body shape and weight. The aim of this activity is to expel the body of calories eate ...

. This was the first psychological treatment to be endorsed by England's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The second is a self-help treatment for people with recurrent binge eating. This is designed to be used either on its own or accompanied by a scalable form of support termed "guided self-help". Guided self-help has been endorsed by

NICE Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

as the first step in the treatment of

binge eating disorder Binge eating disorder (BED) is an eating disorder characterized by frequent and recurrent binge eating episodes with associated negative psychological and social problems, but without the compensatory behaviors common to bulimia nervosa, OSFED, o ...

and

and is used in the treatment of many other mental disorders. The third treatment is transdiagnostic in its clinical range and is termed "enhanced cognitive behaviour therapy" or CBT-E. In 2015 NHS England and the

Chief Medical Officer Chief medical officer (CMO) is the title used in many countries for the senior government official designated head of medical services, sometimes at the national level. The post is held by a physician who serves to advise and lead a team of medical ...

recommended that this treatment be made available for all patients with an

, whatever their eating disorder diagnosis and whatever their age, and in 2017 it was endorsed by

Digital technology and the dissemination of psychological treatments

Fairburn is working on the conversion of therapist-delivered psychological treatments into scalable digital interventions, either delivered on their own or with remote support. Fairburn has also developed a digital method for training therapists. This is capable of simultaneously training large numbers of geographically dispersed therapists. Fairburn is collaborating with

Vikram Patel Vikram Harshad Patel FMedSci (born May 5, 1964) is an Indian psychiatrist and researcher best known for his work on child development and mental disability in low-resource settings. Patel/Brief Biography.pdf He is the Co-Founder and former Dire ...

and colleagues in India who are developing psychological interventions for common mental disorders suitable for delivery by lay counsellors.

Measures of eating disorder features

Fairburn has developed several measures of eating disorder features and their effects. These include the Eating Disorder Examination (EDE), the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) and the Clinical Impairment Assessment (CIA). These are in widespread use and are available in multiple languages.

References

External links

CREDO
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fairburn, Christopher Living people Wellcome Trust Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellows Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) 1950 births