11 March 2026

Dr Emily McBride explains how KHP Centre for Translational Medicine funding is supporting a feasibility study of a new behaviour change intervention for people with binge eating disorder symptoms.

Please describe your day-to-day work and research interests. 

I’m a Clinical Lecturer at King’s College London and Consultant Health Psychologist at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust. My work spans both research and clinical care, focusing on how psychology and behavioural science can improve outcomes for people living with physical health conditions, often alongside co-occurring mental health difficulties. 

In my clinical role, I work within an obesity service supporting patients who are preparing for treatments such as bariatric surgery or GLP-1 medications. Alongside this, my research at King’s College London examines how psychological and behavioural factors influence engagement with medical care and treatment outcomes. 

My work covers a range of long-term conditions such as obesity, cancer, pain, and neurological disorders. My current programme focuses mainly on obesity management and multiple long-term conditions - with particular attention to health inequalities and the intersection of mental health and health behaviours. I also develop and evaluate psychologically informed interventions, including digital approaches. 

You received funding from the KHP Centre for Translational Medicine - how has this helped your research? 

The KHP Centre for Translational Medicine funding is supporting a feasibility study of a new behaviour change intervention for people with binge eating disorder symptoms who are seeking obesity treatments such as bariatric surgery or GLP-1 medications. The project takes an integrated approach to care, recognising that psychological and behavioural factors influence how patients access and benefit from medical treatment. 

The study is a collaboration between King’s College London and an NHS obesity service and is being delivered by a clinical research psychologist (Dr Bethan Dalton) funded through the grant. It is evaluating whether the intervention can be delivered within routine care, whether patients find it acceptable, and how it may influence binge eating behaviours and preparedness for obesity treatment. The aim is to generate the evidence needed to support a larger trial testing the intervention’s effectiveness. 

What is the potential of your research to have a positive impact on patients? 

Around 1 in 4 people referred for bariatric surgery or GLP-1 medications experience binge eating symptoms, which can delay access to these treatments until eating behaviours are addressed. However, there are currently very limited options for psychological support within obesity care pathways, which can create and perpetuate inequalities in access to treatment. 

The CTM funding is supporting a feasibility study testing whether providing targeted psychological treatment earlier in the pathway can help patients reduce binge eating and better prepare them for obesity treatment. If successful, it could help more patients access medical obesity treatments and improve longer-term outcomes. The findings will inform the design of a larger trial and contribute to how psychological care could be better integrated into obesity services. 

What are the next steps for your research and how would you like to see it develop? 

We are currently delivering the feasibility study and completing the therapy groups, which will conclude the quantitative data collection. Alongside this, we will begin analysing the data and conducting interviews with participants to better understand their experiences of the intervention and how it worked in practice. This stage will also provide an opportunity to refine the intervention based on participant feedback and implementation learning from the clinical service. 

The next step will be to use these findings to inform a larger funding application for a multi-site trial to test the effectiveness of the intervention. In the longer term, if the intervention proves effective, I would like to see it recommended for inclusion within obesity medical treatment pathways. This would help address a gap in current obesity services by enabling patients to access evidence-based psychological treatment alongside medical options such as bariatric surgery or GLP-1 medications, supporting more equitable access to treatment and better long-term outcomes. 

Find out more about the work of the KHP Centre for Translational Medicine.