Scientists have found a genetic variation which appears to increase the risk of developing anorexia nervosa.
Dr Andreas Karwautz from MedUni Vienna, Austria, and his team carried out a whole-genome analysis in a large project involving 220 researchers at international medical centres. They analysed genetic material from 3,500 anorexia patients and compared it against 11,000 healthy people.
This found significant links between the disease and genetic anomalies on chromosome 12.
Previous studies, including tests on monozygotic twins, had indicated that there is a genetic component to anorexia, but the genetic loci were unknown.
Dr Karwautz and the team also found links with other disorders, and discovered that the same area of chromosome 12 has links to type I diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and insulin metabolism, as well as the psychiatric conditions neuroticism and schizophrenia.
"Such studies form a basis for providing patients and their relatives with a logical and realistic explanation for this persistent disorder, which is the third commonest disorder in this adolescent age group," says Dr Karwautz. "Prevention programmes will also benefit from these new findings."
Details of the study, which was led by the University of North Carolina, were published recently in American Journal of Psychiatry.
The authors conclude: Anorexia nervosa is a complex heritable phenotype for which this study has uncovered the first genome-wide significant locus. Anorexia nervosa also has large and significant genetic correlations with both psychiatric phenotypes and metabolic traits.
"The study results encourage a reconceptualization of this frequently lethal disorder as one with both psychiatric and metabolic aetiology."
Duncan, L. et al. Significant Locus and Metabolic Genetic Correlations Revealed in Genome-Wide Association Study of Anorexia Nervosa. American Journal of Psychiatry 12 May 2017; doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2017.16121402 [abstract]
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