Reflections on the role of Peer Researchers in eating disorders: identifying challenges, best practices, and future directions

Abstract

The involvement of people with lived experience has become increasingly prominent across mental health research, with co-production and Peer Researcher roles presented as ways of improving the relevance, ethics, and legitimacy of research. Within eating disorder research, however, the integration of Peer Researchers remains inconsistent and is shaped by a range of structural, cultural, and epistemic barriers. Although a growing literature addresses lived experience involvement in eating disorder research, there has been limited critical examination of how Peer Researcher roles operate within a field marked by stigma, narrow recovery narratives, contested notions of credibility, and constrained resources. This paper offers a critical, experience-informed perspective on Peer Research in eating disorders, drawing on the authors’ lived and professional experience alongside a selective synthesis of scholarship on co-production, lived experience research, and epistemic justice. We identify recurrent challenges in the implementation of Peer Researcher roles, including unequal recruitment and representation, trauma- and stigma-related harms, limited power-sharing, inadequate attention to welfare, uneven training and career development, and the effects of working within a comparatively small and under-resourced field. We argue that meaningful inclusion of Peer Researchers depends not simply on their presence within research teams, but on improving the conditions within which they participate. This includes greater flexibility, shared decision-making, appropriate support, and recognising experiential knowledge as a valuable form of expertise. This paper contributes a framework for understanding these challenges and offers practical considerations for developing ethical, just, and sustainable approaches to Peer Research that will improve the relevance and legitimacy of eating disorder research more broadly. People with lived experience of eating disorders are increasingly being involved in research, including through roles as Peer Researchers, where they work as part of research teams rather than only recruited as participants. These approaches are often described as ways of making research more relevant, ethical, and grounded in real-world experience. However, in eating disorder research, Peer Researcher roles are still used inconsistently and can be limited by stigma, narrow ideas about recovery, unequal power relationships, and lack of practical support. In this paper, we draw on our own experiences alongside published research to examine some of the main challenges involved in including Peer Researchers in eating disorder research. These include who gets recruited, how much influence Peer Researchers actually have, how trauma and stigma can affect participation, whether welfare needs are recognised, and what kinds of training, support, and career opportunities are available. We also argue that these issues are shaped by the wider context of eating disorder research as a relatively small and under-resourced field. The paper highlights practical ways of supporting more meaningful involvement and argues that including Peer Researchers well requires cultural and structural change, not just good intentions.