Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
QIMR Home Page
GenEpi Home Page
About GenEpi
Publications
Contacts
Research
Staff Index
Collaborators
Software Tools
Computing Resources
Studies
Search
GenEpi Intranet
PMID
9723134
TITLE
Genetic and environmental risk factors for the weight and shape concerns characteristic of bulimia nervosa.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND NlmCategory: BACKGROUND
This study seeks to identify the genetic and environmental risk factors for the overvalued ideas that are characteristic of bulimia nervosa, using a biometrical model fitting approach with twin data.
METHODS NlmCategory: METHODS
The Eating Disorder Examination (EDE), which can be used to gain continuous measures of dietary restraint, eating concern, weight concern and shape concern, was administered to 325 female twins, both monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ). For each subscale, questions were asked concerning the month prior to interview and lifetime prevalence ('ever').
RESULTS NlmCategory: RESULTS
Model fitting indicated that there is a powerful role of the environment in shaping women's attitude towards weight, shape, eating and food, ranging from 38% to 100% of the variance. For all subscales, with the exception of weight concern, the best explanation for individual variation was one that incorporated additive genetic and non-shared environmental influences. In contrast, model fitting indicated that non-shared and shared environmental influences best explained the variance of weight concern.
CONCLUSIONS NlmCategory: CONCLUSIONS
With the exception of the Shape Concern subscale, environmental factors make a greater contribution than genetic factors to the development of the overvalued ideas that are seen to be one of the triggers for the development of bulimia nervosa. Given this substantial role of the environment influences, it seems likely that environmental manipulation can be effective in the prevention of bulimia nervosa.
DATE PUBLISHED
1998 Jul
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 1998/09/02
medline 1998/09/02 00:01
entrez 1998/09/02 00:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Wade T Wade T T School of Psychology, Flinders University of South Australia, Brisbane, Australia.
Martin NG Martin N G NG
Tiggemann M Tiggemann M M
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 28
ISSUE: 4
TITLE: Psychological medicine
ISOABBREVIATION: Psychol Med
YEAR: 1998
MONTH: Jul
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0033-2917
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Psychol Med
COUNTRY: England
ISSNLINKING: 0033-2917
NLMUNIQUEID: 1254142
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
Twin Study
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GRANTID AGENCY COUNTRY
AA 07535 NIAAA NIH HHS United States
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Body Constitution
Body Weight
Bulimia psychology
Female psychology
Humans psychology
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales psychology
Risk Factors psychology
Twins, Dizygotic psychology
Twins, Monozygotic psychology
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's