The international team of more than 100 researchers studied the DNA of tens of thousands of people with and without anorexianervosa.

A Nature Genetics paper describes how they identified eight genes with a strong link to anorexia nervosa.

Some of the genes have significant links with other psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

However, the findings also reveal genetic links to physical activity, the metabolism of glucose, how the body uses fat, and body measurements. In addition, these links appear to be independent of common genetic ties to body mass index (BMI).

"Until now," says co-senior study author Cynthia M. Bulik, a distinguished professor of eating disorders in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "our focus has been on the psychological aspects of anorexia nervosa, such as the patients' drive for thinness."

However, the new findings about the role of metabolism could help explain why people with anorexia "frequently drop back to dangerously low weights, even after therapeutic renourishment," she adds.

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