The Keynote Lecture at the eighth LatestAdvances in Psychiatry Symposium, held in London in March, was given by Professor Gerald Russell, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry in London. He noted that eating disorders are sometimes associated with a markedly excess mortality. A high crude mortality rate (2.2 per cent per annum) was recorded in a UK series of compulsorily treated anorexia patients, in keeping with these patients, dogged resistance to treatment.1 While bulimia nervosa may respond to fluoxetine, there is no effective pharmacological treatment for anorexia nervosa. Nevertheless,psychological treatments may improve outcomes in both anorexia and bulimia nervosa, although NICE has only grudgingly recognised their efficacy. Medical writer, Mark Greener, reports. Copyright © 2009 Wiley Interface Ltd