QIMR Berghofer and InsideOut Institute researchers are recruiting more than 4,000 Australian adults with lived experience of an eating disorder for the world's largest genetics study, to identify genetic variants and calculate an individual's risk of developing an eating disorder.
The project team has appealed to pharmacists, often the first health professional that a person with an eating disorder will come in contact with, to alert potential volunteers to the study.
The Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative 2 (EDGI2) aims to pinpoint genetic and environmental risk, and protective factors that influence the development of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder and avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), to predict who is at risk, improve personalised treatment, and ultimately save lives.
Research shows that genes account for 40-60% of the variability in eating disorders, but there are limited reliable genetic and environmental predictors for disease course and outcome.
Identifying genetic risk variants can help estimate an individual's genetic susceptibility to diseases and inform earlier, more personalised treatments, predict disease progression, and assess future disease risk in unaffected individuals.
"Advancing our understanding of the genetic variants associated with eating disorders requires a concerted international effort to survey and collect saliva samples from more people with lived experience," study lead Professor Nick Martin said.
"Replicating and expanding past studies is crucial.
"I'm confident that with the Aussie spirit of volunteering, we'll hit our goal of more than 4,000 EDGI2 participants," he concluded.
The National Eating Disorders Collaboration points out that pharmacists can play a vital role in detecting eating disorders by monitoring the use of prescription medicines, such as anti-depressants and anxiolytics, and non-prescription medications and products, including diet pills and laxatives.
People participating in the study will be asked to complete a survey and provide a saliva sample for DNA analysis.
Patients wishing to learn more about, or volunteer for EDGI2 can be directed to the website www.edgi2.org.au or asked to email edgi2@qimrb.edu.au. KB
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 23 May 25
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 23 May 25
