ABSTRACT
Eating disorders reflect a wide range of abnormal eating behaviors and unhealthy attitudes toward food, food consumption, body shape, and body size. Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) have been well defined clinically and generally fall under the purview of psychiatric disorders [see Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. DSM-IV (l)], although less well-studied disorders such as binge eating disorder (BED) and eating disorder-not otherwise specified (ED-NOS), are also found in this domain. With the rising appreciation of the biological and genetic basis of psychiatric disorders and, specific to this chapter, eating disorders, many researchers have sought to identify the genetic contributions to complex disorders such as these. This chapter will briefly review molecular genetic approaches to the study of complex disorders and focus on recent molecular genetic studies of eating disorders. The preponderance of this literature is based on studies of AN and BN: however, when possible, studies that examine other phenotypes, such as BED, will be included. Lastly, we will consider how genetic research on obesity may inform studies in the psychiatrically defined eating disorders.
