Discovery of metabolic causes opens door to new treatments for dangerous eating disorder
The study revealed eight genes that linked anorexia to anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, all of which was expected. Photograph: Lane Erickson/Alamy Stock Photo
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.
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And yet another “it’s all in your head” illness is found to be, at least partly, in other parts of the body as well.
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