Anorexia Nervosa is a psychological disorder that typically affects adolescent girls, but can also affect adolescent boys, and adult women and men. It is an eating disorder that distorts body image, and effects a person’s health in a very negative way. There have been many theories about why anorexia occurs, and why some people develop it while others do not. A new study reveals that there may be a genetic link that increases a person’s risk of having anorexia.
It has been estimated that 9 out of 1000 women in America have anorexia nervosa. Patients with this disorder have an irrational fear of gaining weight. They also have a distorted idea of their own body looks like, which can make them think that they are obese, even when they are extremely thin. People who have anorexia will refuse to eat, even when they are literally starving. Treatment for this psychological disorder generally involves counseling. The cause of anorexia has been widely theorized about, but, until now, there had not been a definitive answer about why someone develops this disorder.
A new study by researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia finds that there is a genetic link to anorexia. The genomes of 1,003 people who had anorexia were scanned. The data from that group was compared with the scans of the genomes of 3,733 children who did not have anorexia.
There is a certain segment of a gene called OPRD1. Previous studies suggested that this gene was somehow linked to anorexia. The link was confirmed by the new study. There is another specific spot between two genes called CHD10 and CHD9 that have been linked with autism by other studies. It is believed that these two genes play a part in how brain cells talk to each other. It seems that those two genes are also linked to anorexia. Another interesting finding was that the people in the study who had anorexia have a deletion on chromosome 13 that the other group did not have. This study is interesting in many ways. It emphasizes that anorexia is something that can run in families.
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