The Influence of Gender and Puberty on the Heritability of Disordered Eating Symptoms

Abstract

Eating disorders and disordered eating symptoms are clearly heritable, but recent research has suggested that genetic and environmental influences on disordered eating symptoms vary as a function of gender and development. Data are limited, but evidence suggests that gender may moderate the type of genetic risk, rather than the magnitude of genetic effects, on disordered eating symptoms. Only a moderate proportion of the genetic influences on disordered eating symptoms are shared between males and females. In females, at least some of the unique genetic risk may be related to puberty and ovarian hormone regulation. The heritability of disordered eating symptoms in females increases with both pubertal development and increasing levels of estradiol. Although much more research is needed to elucidate specific mechanisms, gonadal hormones may be promising candidates for understanding sex and developmental effects and the ways in which genes exert their influence on disordered eating.

The incidence of eating disorders in a Danish register study: Associations with suicide risk and mortality

“…Although there are nominal genetic effects for disordered eating in pre-pubertal twins, there are significant genetic effects for female pubertal and young adult twins (Culbert, Burt, McGue, Iacono, & Klump, 2009). In females, ovarian hormones, particularly estradiol, and the consequent increase in body fat and weight during the pubertal transition trigger heightened weight and shape concerns and disordered eating behaviors (Culbert, Racine, & Klump, 2011). The contribution of ovarian hormones could also explain the consistently reported high ratio of females to males for eating disorders.…”

Research Review: What we have learned about the causes of eating disorders – a synthesis of sociocultural, psychological, and biological research

“…Behavior genetic data have consistently indicated that both genetic and environmental influences contribute to eating disorders and disordered eating symptoms. Across different populations and measurement methods, twin and adoption studies have found moderate‐to‐high heritability of AN, BN, and BED ( h 2 estimates: median ~52%, mean ~50%, range ~28–88%) and disordered eating symptoms ( h 2 estimates: median ~50%, mean ~49%, range ~20–85%) in females and males during adolescence and adulthood (for reviews, see Culbert, Racine, & Klump, ; Trace, Baker, Peñas‐Lledó, & Bulik, ). Nonshared environmental effects (i.e., environmental effects that serve to create behavioral differences between siblings) generally account for the remaining variance.…”

Obesity and eating behavior from the perspective of twin and genetic research

“…Part of the genetic variation is also shared by anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, suggesting that they partly share the same neurobiological background (Thornton et al, 2011). Previous twin studies have been underpowered to detect sex differences in the heritability of eating disorders, but there is some suggestive evidence that somewhat different sets of genes affect eating disorders in males and females (Culbert et al, 2011). GWA studies have been conducted for anorexia nervosa, whereas little is known on the candidate genes of bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder (Himmerich et al, 2019).…”