... include self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives or excessive exercise. This cycle of bingeing and compensatory behaviour will take place at least twice a week. Another characteristic is that the individual has very distorted thinking about their body image. Self-evaluation depends excessively on shape and weight, and there is a discrepancy between estimation of body size and actual body size as found by Cooper ('95). c) Psychologists have tried to account for anorexia nervosa in many ways, including genetic and cognitive factors, looking at brain abnormalities, events in childhood and social factors. There is a lot of evidence that genetic factors are important in determining whether an individual is susceptible to the illness as there is an increased risk of a close relative to the sufferer also developing the disorder. Evidence from twin studies supports the idea of a genetic link. Holland ('88) studied anorexia in monozygotic (identical) and dizygotic (non identical) twins. It ...

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