How can community pharmacists support people living with eating disorders? identifying evidence gaps and practice...

Eating disorders (EDs) are mental illnesses which greatly contribute to disease burden. While binge-eating disorder is the most common ED, anorexia nervosa accounts for one of the most life-threatening mental illnesses. People living with EDs often wait years before receiving a diagnosis and medical support, consequently experiencing poorer health outcomes and longer hospital admissions. As frontline healthcare workers, pharmacists are amongst the most accessible and trusted healthcare professionals. Pharmacists' roles in mental healthcare are expanding with recent evidence demonstrating their contribution to mental health screening and medication management. Pharmacies are frequently visited by the community, reflecting the potential opportunities for pharmacists to be trained to engage with and provide support to people experiencing EDs and their carers. Furthermore, considering people living with EDs have altered pharmacokinetics and may benefit from tailored medication counselling and advice, pharmacists' expertise in medicines and their skills in supporting medicine use may be especially important in this population group. This commentary highlights evidence gaps, and ways trained pharmacists may contribute to supporting people living with EDs. It is evident that there is a need for research exploring pharmacists' current contribution to ED care, the co-design of training to upskill the community pharmacy workforce in providing ED care, and the feasibility and impact of pharmacist-delivered support for people experiencing EDs.