Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative (EDGI)

Principal Investigator: Dr Sarah McDonald

The aim of this project is to investigate genetic and environmental risk factors in individuals who may suffer, have suffered from, or have been diagnosed with an eating disorder.

Aim

The aim of this project is to investigate genetic and environmental risk factors in individuals who may suffer, have suffered from, or have been diagnosed with an eating disorder. We will include mental health measures, basic demographic assessments, and clinical data to assess the impact of environmental factors that may interact with genetic risk factors to produce these disorders.

The primary objectives are:

  1. To explore genetic predictors of eating disorders.
  2. To explore environmental risk factors and co-morbidities and their association with eating disorder severity.
  3. To explore the potential of polygenic risk scores created from analyses of related disorders and traits to predict response to treatment and prognosis.
  4. To explore gene-environment interactions, combining genetic, phenotype and environmental exposure data.
  5. To examine trajectories of eating disorder symptoms, comorbidities and treatment outcomes over time.

Main Inclusion Criteria:

  • Participants who are aged 16 or over.
  • Participants who have a lifetime occurrence of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, or any other eating disorder.
  • Participants who have been diagnosed and/or treated for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or binge-eating disorder or any other eating disorder.
  • Participants with a probable and undiagnosed eating disorder identified through a screening questionnaire.
  • Participants who have not stated their refusal to take part in future research.
  • Participants who are willing to donate a biological sample for genetic analysis.
  • Participants who are currently living or have permanent residence in England.

Planned Recruitment end date March 2028.

Sponsor/s: King’s College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (Co-sponsors). Patients will be recruited into the NIHR Mental Health BioResource [Common diseases (nihr.ac.uk)

Funding: NHS National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded project which is part of the NIHR BioResource.

Contacts: For more information please contact Sue Smith, Senior Research Delivery Officer at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 07920 453 824