Scientists trace genes that may cause certain eating disorders

• Though cultural pressures to be thin are thought to contribute to anorexia and bulimia, research on families and twins indicates eating disorders have strong genetic influences.
• For example, women with a mother or sister with a history of anorexia have elevated risks of anorexia and bulimia.
• But hunting down the specific genes involved in any complex disorder, whether anorexia or heart disease, is a complicated task.
• In the new studies, Dr. Walter H. Kaye of the University of Pittsburgh and his colleagues used data from about 400 families in which multiple members suffered from an eating disorder.
• Out of more than 100 behaviors and personality traits thought to contribute to anorexia and bulimia, the researchers settled on six "core" characteristics that seem to be key to eating disorder risk, and are to some extent heritable.
• These included perfectionism, anxiety and age at first menstrual period, and, to a less consistent degree, concern over mistakes, food-related obsessions and lifetime minimum body weight.
• The researchers then performed a gene-hunting technique called linkage analysis to see whether they could zero in on regions in the genome that may sway the risk of anorexia and bulimia.