Familial aggregation of eating disorders: results from a controlled family study of bulimia nervosa.
OBJECTIVE
While familial aggregation of bulimia nervosa (BN) is known to occur, the extent to which aggregation of a broader spectrum of eating disorders (ED) occurs in the families of individuals with BN is less certain.


METHODS
Direct interviews and blind best-estimate diagnostic procedures were used to assess lifetime histories of EDs among first-degree relatives (n = 177) of probands with BN (n = 47) and first-degree relatives (n = 190) of non-ED control probands (n = 44).


RESULTS
Forty-three percent of sisters and 26% of mothers of BN probands had a lifetime ED diagnosis, with eating disorder not otherwise specified (ED-NOS) diagnoses being most common. These rates were significantly higher than among sisters (5%) and mothers (5%) of controls. Few male relatives of either cohort had an ED.


CONCLUSIONS
Diagnostic assessment using contemporary family-epidemiology methodology revealed very strong familial aggregation of a broad spectrum of EDs among female relatives of women with BN.
Stein
D
D
Western Psychiatric Institute, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pennsylvania, PA 15213, USA.
Lilenfeld
L R
LR
Plotnicov
K
K
Pollice
C
C
Rao
R
R
Strober
M
M
Kaye
W H
WH
D002032:Bulimia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016037:Single-Blind Method