Eating disorders are characterized by severe disturbances in eating behavior that typically have onset during late adolescence and early adulthood. Three major types are recognized: anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN; 607499), and eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS). AN is characterized by obsessive fear of weight gain, severely restricted eating, and low body weight. In women, AN has the highest mortality among the psychiatric disorders (Sullivan, 1995). AN is divided into 2 clinical subtypes, restricting anorexia nervosa (RAN) and binge-eating/purging anorexia nervosa (BPAN). BN can occur at any body weight and is characterized by binge-eating and compensatory weight-loss behaviors. Family studies have indicated an increased prevalence of eating disorders in relatives of probands with AN (Lilenfeld et al., 1998), and twin studies (Holland et al., 1984; Wade et al., 2000) have estimated concordance rates for monozygotic twins with AN to be 52 to 56%, whereas concordance rates for dizygotic twins with AN have been estimated to be 5 to 11% (Grice et al., 2002). [from OMIM]
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