As you know, Something For Kelly contributes to valuable research around mental health challenges and eating disorders. And, during the recent International Conference on Eating Disorders (ICED) in San Antonio, TX Dr. Jiayi Xu from Yale University presented the latest update from the Eating Disorders Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. (Dr. Cynthia Bulik, who is a member of our Advisory Board, is part of this group and leads the Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative.)

In her presentation, entitled, “Genome-Wide Association Studies of Binge Eating Behavior and Anorexia Nervosa Yield Insights into the Unique and Shared Biology of Eating Disorder Phenotypes,” Dr. Xu reported on the two newest genome-wide association studies for anorexia nervosa (24,223 cases, 1,243,971 controls) and the trans-diagnostic symptom of binge-eating behavior (39,279 cases, 1,227,436 controls). Her talk revealed that new genomic loci were identified for each trait and, for the first time, presented evidence that anorexia nervosa and binge-eating behavior have both shared and distinct genetic underpinnings. That means that genetically, not all eating disorders are the same.

More details will be emerging soon and data collection is now underway to further increase sample sizes. Although 24,000+ and 39,000+ sound like big sample sizes; for psychiatric genetics research they are still relatively small! The Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative 2 (EDGI2) study is underway in several countries under the global direction of Dr. Cynthia Bulik at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The EDGI2 team is inviting individuals who have had anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, or ARFID at any time in their life to visit their websites to learn more or to participate.

You can read more or take the survey to participate in the study at the following links:

In the United States and Puerto Rico: edgi2.org

In Australia: edgi2.org.au

In New Zealand: edgi.nz

In Mexico: comenzardenuevo.org/EDGI2/