Anorexia not just a psychiatric problem, scientists find

Discovery of metabolic causes opens door to new treatments for dangerous eating disorder

Ian Sample Science editor
@iansample
Mon 15 Jul 2019 16.00 BST Last modified on Tue 16 Jul 2019 01.00 BST

Scientists have found that the devastating eating disorder anorexia nervosa is not purely a psychiatric condition but is also driven by problems with metabolism.

The finding may help to explain doctors’ poor record in treating the illness and pave the way for radical new approaches to predict and treat those who are most at risk.

Researchers made the discovery after comparing the DNA of nearly 17,000 people with anorexia and more than 55,000 healthy controls. Those with anorexia submitted their DNA through the Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative or the eating disorders working group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium.

The study revealed eight genes that linked anorexia to anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, all of which was expected. But it also flagged up DNA involved in burning fat, being physically active and having resistance to type 2 diabetes.

“What our study means is we can no longer treat anorexia, and perhaps other eating disorders, as purely psychiatric or psychological,” said Gerome Breen, a geneticist at King’s College London who co-led the study with US researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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