Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Anorexia Nervoas linked to chromosome 12
Article: For anorexia nervosa, researchers implicate genetic locus on chromosome 12
Research done by: UNC School of Medicine
Published: May 12, 2017
For the article click here.
A genomic study was done including 3,495 individuals with anorexia nervosa and 10,982 unaffected individuals.  The genetic variations found within people that had anorexia were more frequent than those found in unaffected individuals.  This implied that the eating disorder was associated with these variations.  A genome wide significant locus was found on chromosome 12.  This location on the chromosome was previously linked to type 1 diabetes as well as autoimmune disorders.  The researchers found that different disorders can be linked to the same gene.  It was found that anorexia was correlated to neuroticism and schizophrenia.  This concluded that anorexia is a psychiatric illness.  In addition to these findings, various metabolic genes were displayed in the individuals with anorexia noting anorexia has metabolic roots.
Currently, no medicines exist for anorexia but, understanding it is a psychiatric and metabolic condition can help develop treatment in the future. 

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1 comment:

  1. I found this really interesting because I've done an abundance of research on this disorder and associated ones too. I completely agree that this is a psychiatric illness because it affects the brain tremendously. I also read that victims don't ever fully recover from this illness, and their brain still struggles to return to normal function even once their body has.

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