Innovative Approaches to Understanding Eating Disorders

Date: March 8, 2022

Dr. Cynthia Bulik is the Founding Director of the University of North Carolina Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders and the founder and director of the Centre for Eating Disorders Innovation at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Her clinical work and research on eating disorders span decades and continents. The ground-breaking Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative (EDGI) is the largest global research study on the genetics of eating disorders ever conducted. EDGI aims to identify the hundreds of genes that influence a person’s risk of developing anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder, to improve treatment, and ultimately save lives.Dr. Bulik founded the Eating Disorders Workgroup of the Psychiatric Genetics Consortium (PGC-ED). This group focuses on the study of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID). Although social and cultural factors play a role, recent genetic research reveals a substantial genetic influence on eating disorders. In fact, genetics account for 40-60 percent of the variability in eating disorders, leaving the remaining variability to be influenced by environmental factors.