Cynthia M Bulik1, Susan C Kleiman, Zeynep Yilmaz. 1. aUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA bKarolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden cUniversity College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: We capture recent findings in the field of genetic epidemiology of eating disorders. As analytic techniques evolve for twin, population, and molecular genetic studies, new findings emerge at an accelerated pace. We present the current status of knowledge regarding the role of genetic and environmental factors that influence risk for eating disorders. RECENT FINDINGS: We focus on novel findings from twin studies, population studies using genetically informative designs, and molecular genetic studies. Over the past 2 years, research in this area has yielded insights into: comorbidity with other psychiatric and medical disorders and with metabolic traits; developmental factors associated with the emergence of eating disorders; and the molecular genetics of anorexia nervosa. SUMMARY: Insights from genetic epidemiology provide an important explanatory model for patients with eating disorders, family members, and clinicians. Understanding core biological determinants that explain the severity and persistence of the illnesses, their frequent co-occurrence with other conditions, and their familial patterns raises awareness and increases compassion for individuals living with these disorders. Large-scale genomic studies are currently underway. Ultimately, this domain of research may pave the way to greater understanding of the underlying neurobiology and inform the development of novel and effective interventions.
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: We capture recent findings in the field of genetic epidemiology of eating disorders. As analytic techniques evolve for twin, population, and molecular genetic studies, new findings emerge at an accelerated pace. We present the current status of knowledge regarding the role of genetic and environmental factors that influence risk for eating disorders. RECENT FINDINGS: We focus on novel findings from twin studies, population studies using genetically informative designs, and molecular genetic studies. Over the past 2 years, research in this area has yielded insights into: comorbidity with other psychiatric and medical disorders and with metabolic traits; developmental factors associated with the emergence of eating disorders; and the molecular genetics of anorexia nervosa. SUMMARY: Insights from genetic epidemiology provide an important explanatory model for patients with eating disorders, family members, and clinicians. Understanding core biological determinants that explain the severity and persistence of the illnesses, their frequent co-occurrence with other conditions, and their familial patterns raises awareness and increases compassion for individuals living with these disorders. Large-scale genomic studies are currently underway. Ultimately, this domain of research may pave the way to greater understanding of the underlying neurobiology and inform the development of novel and effective interventions.
Authors: Susan L McElroy; Scott Crow; Thomas J Blom; Joanna M Biernacka; Stacey J Winham; Jennifer Geske; Alfredo B Cuellar-Barboza; William V Bobo; Miguel L Prieto; Marin Veldic; Nicole Mori; Lisa R Seymour; David J Bond; Mark A Frye Journal: J Affect Disord Date: 2015-11-19 Impact factor: 4.839
Authors: Ren-Shiang Chen; Tzyy-Chyn Deng; Thomas Garcia; Zachary M Sellers; Philip M Best Journal: Cell Biochem Biophys Date: 2007 Impact factor: 2.194
Authors: Brendan K Bulik-Sullivan; Po-Ru Loh; Hilary K Finucane; Stephan Ripke; Jian Yang; Nick Patterson; Mark J Daly; Alkes L Price; Benjamin M Neale Journal: Nat Genet Date: 2015-02-02 Impact factor: 38.330
Authors: Amy Murphy; Kelan G Tantisira; Manuel E Soto-Quirós; Lydiana Avila; Barbara J Klanderman; Stephen Lake; Scott T Weiss; Juan C Celedón Journal: Am J Hum Genet Date: 2009-07-02 Impact factor: 11.025
Authors: Melissa A Munn-Chernoff; Julia D Grant; Arpana Agrawal; Carolyn E Sartor; Kimberly B Werner; Kathleen K Bucholz; Pamela A F Madden; Andrew C Heath; Alexis E Duncan Journal: Drug Alcohol Depend Date: 2015-06-08 Impact factor: 4.492
Authors: Martin Cederlöf; Laura M Thornton; Jessica Baker; Paul Lichtenstein; Henrik Larsson; Christian Rück; Cynthia M Bulik; David Mataix-Cols Journal: World Psychiatry Date: 2015-10 Impact factor: 49.548
Authors: Shuyang Yao; Ralf Kuja-Halkola; Laura M Thornton; Cristin D Runfola; Brian M D'Onofrio; Catarina Almqvist; Paul Lichtenstein; Arvid Sjölander; Henrik Larsson; Cynthia M Bulik Journal: JAMA Psychiatry Date: 2016-03 Impact factor: 21.596
Authors: Elizabeth K Speliotes; Cristen J Willer; Sonja I Berndt; Keri L Monda; Gudmar Thorleifsson; Anne U Jackson; Hana Lango Allen; Cecilia M Lindgren; Jian'an Luan; Reedik Mägi; Joshua C Randall; Sailaja Vedantam; Thomas W Winkler; Lu Qi; Tsegaselassie Workalemahu; Iris M Heid; Valgerdur Steinthorsdottir; Heather M Stringham; Michael N Weedon; Eleanor Wheeler; Andrew R Wood; Teresa Ferreira; Robert J Weyant; Ayellet V Segrè; Karol Estrada; Liming Liang; James Nemesh; Ju-Hyun Park; Stefan Gustafsson; Tuomas O Kilpeläinen; Jian Yang; Nabila Bouatia-Naji; Tõnu Esko; Mary F Feitosa; Zoltán Kutalik; Massimo Mangino; Soumya Raychaudhuri; Andre Scherag; Albert Vernon Smith; Ryan Welch; Jing Hua Zhao; Katja K Aben; Devin M Absher; Najaf Amin; Anna L Dixon; Eva Fisher; Nicole L Glazer; Michael E Goddard; Nancy L Heard-Costa; Volker Hoesel; Jouke-Jan Hottenga; Asa Johansson; Toby Johnson; Shamika Ketkar; Claudia Lamina; Shengxu Li; Miriam F Moffatt; Richard H Myers; Narisu Narisu; John R B Perry; Marjolein J Peters; Michael Preuss; Samuli Ripatti; Fernando Rivadeneira; Camilla Sandholt; Laura J Scott; Nicholas J Timpson; Jonathan P Tyrer; Sophie van Wingerden; Richard M Watanabe; Charles C White; Fredrik Wiklund; Christina Barlassina; Daniel I Chasman; Matthew N Cooper; John-Olov Jansson; Robert W Lawrence; Niina Pellikka; Inga Prokopenko; Jianxin Shi; Elisabeth Thiering; Helene Alavere; Maria T S Alibrandi; Peter Almgren; Alice M Arnold; Thor Aspelund; Larry D Atwood; Beverley Balkau; Anthony J Balmforth; Amanda J Bennett; Yoav Ben-Shlomo; Richard N Bergman; Sven Bergmann; Heike Biebermann; Alexandra I F Blakemore; Tanja Boes; Lori L Bonnycastle; Stefan R Bornstein; Morris J Brown; Thomas A Buchanan; Fabio Busonero; Harry Campbell; Francesco P Cappuccio; Christine Cavalcanti-Proença; Yii-Der Ida Chen; Chih-Mei Chen; Peter S Chines; Robert Clarke; Lachlan Coin; John Connell; Ian N M Day; Martin den Heijer; Jubao Duan; Shah Ebrahim; Paul Elliott; Roberto Elosua; Gudny Eiriksdottir; Michael R Erdos; Johan G Eriksson; Maurizio F Facheris; Stephan B Felix; Pamela Fischer-Posovszky; Aaron R Folsom; Nele Friedrich; Nelson B Freimer; Mao Fu; Stefan Gaget; Pablo V Gejman; Eco J C Geus; Christian Gieger; Anette P Gjesing; Anuj Goel; Philippe Goyette; Harald Grallert; Jürgen Grässler; Danielle M Greenawalt; Christopher J Groves; Vilmundur Gudnason; Candace Guiducci; Anna-Liisa Hartikainen; Neelam Hassanali; Alistair S Hall; Aki S Havulinna; Caroline Hayward; Andrew C Heath; Christian Hengstenberg; Andrew A Hicks; Anke Hinney; Albert Hofman; Georg Homuth; Jennie Hui; Wilmar Igl; Carlos Iribarren; Bo Isomaa; Kevin B Jacobs; Ivonne Jarick; Elizabeth Jewell; Ulrich John; Torben Jørgensen; Pekka Jousilahti; Antti Jula; Marika Kaakinen; Eero Kajantie; Lee M Kaplan; Sekar Kathiresan; Johannes Kettunen; Leena Kinnunen; Joshua W Knowles; Ivana Kolcic; Inke R König; Seppo Koskinen; Peter Kovacs; Johanna Kuusisto; Peter Kraft; Kirsti Kvaløy; Jaana Laitinen; Olivier Lantieri; Chiara Lanzani; Lenore J Launer; Cecile Lecoeur; Terho Lehtimäki; Guillaume Lettre; Jianjun Liu; Marja-Liisa Lokki; Mattias Lorentzon; Robert N Luben; Barbara Ludwig; Paolo Manunta; Diana Marek; Michel Marre; Nicholas G Martin; Wendy L McArdle; Anne McCarthy; Barbara McKnight; Thomas Meitinger; Olle Melander; David Meyre; Kristian Midthjell; Grant W Montgomery; Mario A Morken; Andrew P Morris; Rosanda Mulic; Julius S Ngwa; Mari Nelis; Matt J Neville; Dale R Nyholt; Christopher J O'Donnell; Stephen O'Rahilly; Ken K Ong; Ben Oostra; Guillaume Paré; Alex N Parker; Markus Perola; Irene Pichler; Kirsi H Pietiläinen; Carl G P Platou; Ozren Polasek; Anneli Pouta; Suzanne Rafelt; Olli Raitakari; Nigel W Rayner; Martin Ridderstråle; Winfried Rief; Aimo Ruokonen; Neil R Robertson; Peter Rzehak; Veikko Salomaa; Alan R Sanders; Manjinder S Sandhu; Serena Sanna; Jouko Saramies; Markku J Savolainen; Susann Scherag; Sabine Schipf; Stefan Schreiber; Heribert Schunkert; Kaisa Silander; Juha Sinisalo; David S Siscovick; Jan H Smit; Nicole Soranzo; Ulla Sovio; Jonathan Stephens; Ida Surakka; Amy J Swift; Mari-Liis Tammesoo; Jean-Claude Tardif; Maris Teder-Laving; Tanya M Teslovich; John R Thompson; Brian Thomson; Anke Tönjes; Tiinamaija Tuomi; Joyce B J van Meurs; Gert-Jan van Ommen; Vincent Vatin; Jorma Viikari; Sophie Visvikis-Siest; Veronique Vitart; Carla I G Vogel; Benjamin F Voight; Lindsay L Waite; Henri Wallaschofski; G Bragi Walters; Elisabeth Widen; Susanna Wiegand; Sarah H Wild; Gonneke Willemsen; Daniel R Witte; Jacqueline C Witteman; Jianfeng Xu; Qunyuan Zhang; Lina Zgaga; Andreas Ziegler; Paavo Zitting; John P Beilby; I Sadaf Farooqi; Johannes Hebebrand; Heikki V Huikuri; Alan L James; Mika Kähönen; Douglas F Levinson; Fabio Macciardi; Markku S Nieminen; Claes Ohlsson; Lyle J Palmer; Paul M Ridker; Michael Stumvoll; Jacques S Beckmann; Heiner Boeing; Eric Boerwinkle; Dorret I Boomsma; Mark J Caulfield; Stephen J Chanock; Francis S Collins; L Adrienne Cupples; George Davey Smith; Jeanette Erdmann; Philippe Froguel; Henrik Grönberg; Ulf Gyllensten; Per Hall; Torben Hansen; Tamara B Harris; Andrew T Hattersley; Richard B Hayes; Joachim Heinrich; Frank B Hu; Kristian Hveem; Thomas Illig; Marjo-Riitta Jarvelin; Jaakko Kaprio; Fredrik Karpe; Kay-Tee Khaw; Lambertus A Kiemeney; Heiko Krude; Markku Laakso; Debbie A Lawlor; Andres Metspalu; Patricia B Munroe; Willem H Ouwehand; Oluf Pedersen; Brenda W Penninx; Annette Peters; Peter P Pramstaller; Thomas Quertermous; Thomas Reinehr; Aila Rissanen; Igor Rudan; Nilesh J Samani; Peter E H Schwarz; Alan R Shuldiner; Timothy D Spector; Jaakko Tuomilehto; Manuela Uda; André Uitterlinden; Timo T Valle; Martin Wabitsch; Gérard Waeber; Nicholas J Wareham; Hugh Watkins; James F Wilson; Alan F Wright; M Carola Zillikens; Nilanjan Chatterjee; Steven A McCarroll; Shaun Purcell; Eric E Schadt; Peter M Visscher; Themistocles L Assimes; Ingrid B Borecki; Panos Deloukas; Caroline S Fox; Leif C Groop; Talin Haritunians; David J Hunter; Robert C Kaplan; Karen L Mohlke; Jeffrey R O'Connell; Leena Peltonen; David Schlessinger; David P Strachan; Cornelia M van Duijn; H-Erich Wichmann; Timothy M Frayling; Unnur Thorsteinsdottir; Gonçalo R Abecasis; Inês Barroso; Michael Boehnke; Kari Stefansson; Kari E North; Mark I McCarthy; Joel N Hirschhorn; Erik Ingelsson; Ruth J F Loos Journal: Nat Genet Date: 2010-10-10 Impact factor: 38.330
Authors: A A Scott-Van Zeeland; C S Bloss; R Tewhey; V Bansal; A Torkamani; O Libiger; V Duvvuri; N Wineinger; L Galvez; B F Darst; E N Smith; A Carson; P Pham; T Phillips; N Villarasa; R Tisch; G Zhang; S Levy; S Murray; W Chen; S Srinivasan; G Berenson; H Brandt; S Crawford; S Crow; M M Fichter; K A Halmi; C Johnson; A S Kaplan; M La Via; J E Mitchell; M Strober; A Rotondo; J Treasure; D B Woodside; C M Bulik; P Keel; K L Klump; L Lilenfeld; K Plotnicov; E J Topol; P B Shih; P Magistretti; A W Bergen; W Berrettini; W Kaye; N J Schork Journal: Mol Psychiatry Date: 2013-09-03 Impact factor: 15.992
Authors: S Hong Lee; Stephan Ripke; Benjamin M Neale; Stephen V Faraone; Shaun M Purcell; Roy H Perlis; Bryan J Mowry; Anita Thapar; Michael E Goddard; John S Witte; Devin Absher; Ingrid Agartz; Huda Akil; Farooq Amin; Ole A Andreassen; Adebayo Anjorin; Richard Anney; Verneri Anttila; Dan E Arking; Philip Asherson; Maria H Azevedo; Lena Backlund; Judith A Badner; Anthony J Bailey; Tobias Banaschewski; Jack D Barchas; Michael R Barnes; Thomas B Barrett; Nicholas Bass; Agatino Battaglia; Michael Bauer; Mònica Bayés; Frank Bellivier; Sarah E Bergen; Wade Berrettini; Catalina Betancur; Thomas Bettecken; Joseph Biederman; Elisabeth B Binder; Donald W Black; Douglas H R Blackwood; Cinnamon S Bloss; Michael Boehnke; Dorret I Boomsma; Gerome Breen; René Breuer; Richard Bruggeman; Paul Cormican; Nancy G Buccola; Jan K Buitelaar; William E Bunney; Joseph D Buxbaum; William F Byerley; Enda M Byrne; Sian Caesar; Wiepke Cahn; Rita M Cantor; Miguel Casas; Aravinda Chakravarti; Kimberly Chambert; Khalid Choudhury; Sven Cichon; C Robert Cloninger; David A Collier; Edwin H Cook; Hilary Coon; Bru Cormand; Aiden Corvin; William H Coryell; David W Craig; Ian W Craig; Jennifer Crosbie; Michael L Cuccaro; David Curtis; Darina Czamara; Susmita Datta; Geraldine Dawson; Richard Day; Eco J De Geus; Franziska Degenhardt; Srdjan Djurovic; Gary J Donohoe; Alysa E Doyle; Jubao Duan; Frank Dudbridge; Eftichia Duketis; Richard P Ebstein; Howard J Edenberg; Josephine Elia; Sean Ennis; Bruno Etain; Ayman Fanous; Anne E Farmer; I Nicol Ferrier; Matthew Flickinger; Eric Fombonne; Tatiana Foroud; Josef Frank; Barbara Franke; Christine Fraser; Robert Freedman; Nelson B Freimer; Christine M Freitag; Marion Friedl; Louise Frisén; Louise Gallagher; Pablo V Gejman; Lyudmila Georgieva; Elliot S Gershon; Daniel H Geschwind; Ina Giegling; Michael Gill; Scott D Gordon; Katherine Gordon-Smith; Elaine K Green; Tiffany A Greenwood; Dorothy E Grice; Magdalena Gross; Detelina Grozeva; Weihua Guan; Hugh Gurling; Lieuwe De Haan; Jonathan L Haines; Hakon Hakonarson; Joachim Hallmayer; Steven P Hamilton; Marian L Hamshere; Thomas F Hansen; Annette M Hartmann; Martin Hautzinger; Andrew C Heath; Anjali K Henders; Stefan Herms; Ian B Hickie; Maria Hipolito; Susanne Hoefels; Peter A Holmans; Florian Holsboer; Witte J Hoogendijk; Jouke-Jan Hottenga; Christina M Hultman; Vanessa Hus; Andrés Ingason; Marcus Ising; Stéphane Jamain; Edward G Jones; Ian Jones; Lisa Jones; Jung-Ying Tzeng; Anna K Kähler; René S Kahn; Radhika Kandaswamy; Matthew C Keller; James L Kennedy; Elaine Kenny; Lindsey Kent; Yunjung Kim; George K Kirov; Sabine M Klauck; Lambertus Klei; James A Knowles; Martin A Kohli; Daniel L Koller; Bettina Konte; Ania Korszun; Lydia Krabbendam; Robert Krasucki; Jonna Kuntsi; Phoenix Kwan; Mikael Landén; Niklas Långström; Mark Lathrop; Jacob Lawrence; William B Lawson; Marion Leboyer; David H Ledbetter; Phil H Lee; Todd Lencz; Klaus-Peter Lesch; Douglas F Levinson; Cathryn M Lewis; Jun Li; Paul Lichtenstein; Jeffrey A Lieberman; Dan-Yu Lin; Don H Linszen; Chunyu Liu; Falk W Lohoff; Sandra K Loo; Catherine Lord; Jennifer K Lowe; Susanne Lucae; Donald J MacIntyre; Pamela A F Madden; Elena Maestrini; Patrik K E Magnusson; Pamela B Mahon; Wolfgang Maier; Anil K Malhotra; Shrikant M Mane; Christa L Martin; Nicholas G Martin; Manuel Mattheisen; Keith Matthews; Morten Mattingsdal; Steven A McCarroll; Kevin A McGhee; James J McGough; Patrick J McGrath; Peter McGuffin; Melvin G McInnis; Andrew McIntosh; Rebecca McKinney; Alan W McLean; Francis J McMahon; William M McMahon; Andrew McQuillin; Helena Medeiros; Sarah E Medland; Sandra Meier; Ingrid Melle; Fan Meng; Jobst Meyer; Christel M Middeldorp; Lefkos Middleton; Vihra Milanova; Ana Miranda; Anthony P Monaco; Grant W Montgomery; Jennifer L Moran; Daniel Moreno-De-Luca; Gunnar Morken; Derek W Morris; Eric M Morrow; Valentina Moskvina; Pierandrea Muglia; Thomas W Mühleisen; Walter J Muir; Bertram Müller-Myhsok; Michael Murtha; Richard M Myers; Inez Myin-Germeys; Michael C Neale; Stan F Nelson; Caroline M Nievergelt; Ivan Nikolov; Vishwajit Nimgaonkar; Willem A Nolen; Markus M Nöthen; John I Nurnberger; Evaristus A Nwulia; Dale R Nyholt; Colm O'Dushlaine; Robert D Oades; Ann Olincy; Guiomar Oliveira; Line Olsen; Roel A Ophoff; Urban Osby; Michael J Owen; Aarno Palotie; Jeremy R Parr; Andrew D Paterson; Carlos N Pato; Michele T Pato; Brenda W Penninx; Michele L Pergadia; Margaret A Pericak-Vance; Benjamin S Pickard; Jonathan Pimm; Joseph Piven; Danielle Posthuma; James B Potash; Fritz Poustka; Peter Propping; Vinay Puri; Digby J Quested; Emma M Quinn; Josep Antoni Ramos-Quiroga; Henrik B Rasmussen; Soumya Raychaudhuri; Karola Rehnström; Andreas Reif; Marta Ribasés; John P Rice; Marcella Rietschel; Kathryn Roeder; Herbert Roeyers; Lizzy Rossin; Aribert Rothenberger; Guy Rouleau; Douglas Ruderfer; Dan Rujescu; Alan R Sanders; Stephan J Sanders; Susan L Santangelo; Joseph A Sergeant; Russell Schachar; Martin Schalling; Alan F Schatzberg; William A Scheftner; Gerard D Schellenberg; Stephen W Scherer; Nicholas J Schork; Thomas G Schulze; Johannes Schumacher; Markus Schwarz; Edward Scolnick; Laura J Scott; Jianxin Shi; Paul D Shilling; Stanley I Shyn; Jeremy M Silverman; Susan L Slager; Susan L Smalley; Johannes H Smit; Erin N Smith; Edmund J S Sonuga-Barke; David St Clair; Matthew State; Michael Steffens; Hans-Christoph Steinhausen; John S Strauss; Jana Strohmaier; T Scott Stroup; James S Sutcliffe; Peter Szatmari; Szabocls Szelinger; Srinivasa Thirumalai; Robert C Thompson; Alexandre A Todorov; Federica Tozzi; Jens Treutlein; Manfred Uhr; Edwin J C G van den Oord; Gerard Van Grootheest; Jim Van Os; Astrid M Vicente; Veronica J Vieland; John B Vincent; Peter M Visscher; Christopher A Walsh; Thomas H Wassink; Stanley J Watson; Myrna M Weissman; Thomas Werge; Thomas F Wienker; Ellen M Wijsman; Gonneke Willemsen; Nigel Williams; A Jeremy Willsey; Stephanie H Witt; Wei Xu; Allan H Young; Timothy W Yu; Stanley Zammit; Peter P Zandi; Peng Zhang; Frans G Zitman; Sebastian Zöllner; Bernie Devlin; John R Kelsoe; Pamela Sklar; Mark J Daly; Michael C O'Donovan; Nicholas Craddock; Patrick F Sullivan; Jordan W Smoller; Kenneth S Kendler; Naomi R Wray Journal: Nat Genet Date: 2013-08-11 Impact factor: 38.330
Authors: Niloofar Afari; Marianna Gasperi; Cara Dochat; Jennalee S Wooldridge; Matthew S Herbert; Ellen A Schur; Dedra S Buchwald Journal: Eat Disord Date: 2021-01-06 Impact factor: 3.222
Authors: Johanna Nettersheim; Gabriele Gerlach; Stephan Herpertz; Riadh Abed; Aurelio J Figueredo; Martin Brüne Journal: Front Psychol Date: 2018-10-31
Authors: Suzanne Higgs; Maartje S Spetter; Jason M Thomas; Pia Rotshtein; Michelle Lee; Manfred Hallschmid; Colin T Dourish Journal: J Psychopharmacol Date: 2017-10-26 Impact factor: 4.153