Working at the Douglas Institute’s Eating Disorders Program since 1986, and as the program’s Director since 1990, Howard Steiger has contributed significantly to the advancement of knowledge regarding causal mechanisms and clinical management of eating disorders.

Among various things, Steiger’s research addresses the relationship between eating disturbances and comorbid psychopathology - with recent research focussing on developmental, neurobiological and genetic correlates of the eating disorders and commonly associated psychopathology.

Current projects address the relationship between certain trait variations, on the one hand, and variations in factors (genetic and neurobiological) pertinent to brain serotonin and H-P-A axis activity. Recent studies explore the possibility that interactions between developmental stressors (like childhood abuse) and serotonin- or HPA-axis system function- may influence eating-disorder development and course. An assumption behind this work is that heritable vulnerabilities may be amplified by environmental stressors, and then “switched on” by effects of too much dieting.

Results of this work help explain why eating disorders often coincide with other psychological problems (e.g., depression, anxiety, impulsivity), and with adverse developmental factors (e.g., childhood abuse) - but almost invariably occur in intensive dieters (who presumably impair the activity of various brain systems through calorie deprivation).

More importantly, these findings point to different causal processes in different individuals - implicating different balances of hereditary, experiential and dietary effects in different people - and therefore help prescribe individualized methods of treatment.

Howard Steiger was president of the Eating Disorders Research Society (EDRS) for 2007-2008 and member of the executive committee of the Academy of Eating Disorders (2007-2009). He is presently associate editor of the International Journal of Eating Disorders, and a member of various committees of the Academy for Eating Disorders. Recently, he has been named co-president of a Quebec government committee charged with the development of a charter to guide the actions of the fashion industry (and related media) that impact upon social inducements towards thin body image and excessive dieting.