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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Scientists have noted that many people with the eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia also have obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, a condition that cause people to repeat thoughts or acts for no apparent reason. Given this association, some have speculated that eating disorders may be genetically linked in some way to OCD. A new study from Italian researchers seems to confirm those speculations.
In this study, investigators measured the incidence of OCD among first-degree relatives of female subjects with eating disorders and compared it to the incidence among relatives of women without eating disorders.
Results of the study, which appears in this month's American Journal of Psychiatry , show the incidence of OCD was considerably higher among the relatives of the eating disorder subjects than among the relatives of the subjects without eating disorders (9.69 percent versus 0 percent). The link held regardless of which eating disorder the female suffered from or whether or not she also suffered from an obsessive-compulsive disorder herself.
The researchers conclude that eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia should be considered a part of the obsessive-compulsive spectrum of disorders.