My lab is dedicated to determining how suicide and eating disorders can be effectively predicted, treated, and prevented. We do this work because suicide and eating disorders are devastating. They affect millions of people worldwide, though the burdens are not felt equally across the population. Suicide and eating disorders disproportionately impact girls, women, and the LGBTQIA+ community. My lab conducts research to clarify particularly at-risk groups through an intersectionality lens and to understand multilevel risk processes within these intersectional at-risk groups. Ultimately, we hope to use this information to develop and disseminate more effective interventions for specific at-risk groups.
For example, my current eating disorders work investigates structural processes contributing to eating disorder prevalence at the intersection of gender, sexual orientation, and race. My current suicide work investigates multilevel and person-specific suicide risk processes at the intersection of rurality, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Suicide and eating disorders are incredibly complex, so much of my work uses advanced quantitative methods to capture and model this complexity. Website
Dr. Forrest is NOT accepting new doctoral students for Fall 2026.
Selected Publications:
*indicates mentee
Forrest, L. N., Beccia, A., Gehman, S.*, Exten, C., & Ansell, E. B. (in press). Intersectional prevalence of suicide ideation, plan, and attempt based on gender, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, and rurality. JAMA Psychiatry.
Forrest, L. N., Ivezaj, V., & Grilo, C. M. (2023). Machine learning versus traditional regression models predicting treatment outcomes for binge-eating disorder from a randomized controlled trial. Psychological Medicine, 53, 2777–2788.
Gioia, A. N.*, Forrest, L. N., & Smith, A. R. (2022). Diminished body trust uniquely predicts suicidal ideation and nonsuicidal self-injury among people with recent self-injurious thoughts and behaviors. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behaviors, 52, 1205–1216.
Forrest, L. N., Jacobucci, R. C., & Grilo, C. M. (2022). Empirically determined severity levels for binge-eating disorder outperform existing severity classification schemes. Psychological Medicine, 52, 685–695.
Forrest, L. N., & Grilo, C. M. (2022). Change in eating-disorder psychopathology network structure in patients with binge-eating disorder: Findings from treatment trial with 12-month follow-up. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 90, 491–502.
Forrest, L. N., Zuromski, K. L., Dodd, D. R., & Smith, A. R. (2017). Suicidality in adolescents and adults with binge-eating disorder: Results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication and Adolescent Supplement. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 50, 40–49.
Smith, A. R., Forrest, L. N., Duffy, M. E., Jones, P. J., Joiner, T. E., & Pisetsky, E. M. (2020). Identifying bridge pathways between eating disorder symptoms and suicidal ideation across three samples. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 129, 724–736.
Forrest, L. N., Perkins, N., Lavender, J., & Smith, A. R. (2019). Using network analysis to identify men’s central eating disorder symptoms. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 52, 871–884.
Forrest, L. N., Smith, A. R., White, R. D., & Joiner, T. E. (2015). (Dis)connected: An examination of interoception in individuals with suicidality. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 124, 754–763.
