Eating disorders may have autoimmune roots

A new study adds to evidence that the eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa could be autoimmune diseases.

Three years ago, Sergueï Fetissov of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and his colleagues studied 57 people with anorexia or bulimia and found that three-quarters of them had blood antibodies against melanocortin peptides. Previous research had shown that these peptides control appetite and stress responses.