Priya Sumithran

Research Overview

Obesity affects one in three Australian adults and 800 million people around the world. Body weight is not determined by lifestyle alone – it is strongly influenced by genetic, hormonal, environmental and societal factors. This is why it is very challenging for most people to lose weight, and to maintain weight loss, through lifestyle changes alone.

Our goal is to reduce the impact of obesity on health and wellbeing. We are working on a range of studies aimed at improving the treatment of obesity, and at making effective treatment more widely accessible.

We have a number of projects underway focusing on understanding the links between obesity and mental health, what drives us to eat when we feel stressed, how obesity treatments affect food choices and mood, and new approaches to managing obesity and delivering clinical services.

Our group is based at St Vincent’s Hospital, and is closely linked with the obesity management service at Austin Health. We are committed to research which will improve clinical care and address the needs of people with obesity.

For more information about obesity, please visit our Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/sheddinglightonobesity/

To get involved in our research, or enquire about participating in one of our studies, please email obesity-research@unimelb.edu.au

CURRENTLY RECRUITING STUDIES
Stress-related eating in people seeking treatment for obesity

The purpose of this study is to understand how stress-related eating (‘comfort eating’ or ‘emotional eating’) is affected by bariatric (weight loss) surgery. We are recruiting participants who are on the waiting list for sleeve gastrectomy at St Vincent’s Hospital (Melbourne) or Austin Health. To find out more, please contact us at obesity-research@unimelb.edu.au

Obesity and eating behaviours research registry
We are creating a secure registry of people who would like to participate in research related to overweight/obesity and uncontrolled eating. More information, including how to enrol or register your interest, will be available here soon.

Research Projects

For project inquiries, contact our research group head.



Faculty Research Themes

Neuroscience

School Research Themes

Neuroscience & Psychiatry, Cardiometabolic



Key Contact

For further information about this research, please contact Dr Priya Sumithran

Department / Centre

Medicine , St Vincent's Hospital

Node

St Vincent's Hospital

Unit / Centre

Priya Sumithran

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