In the past fifteen years many hypotheses have emerged linking eating disorders to depression. Some researchers and theorists have even gone so far as to consider eating disorders as atypical variants of depression. In this article results from five lines of research (phenomenology, outcome, family history, biological research and response to antidepressant drugs) are given and critically examined. It is concluded that an interactive and multidetermined model does more right to the results than an unidirectional point of view.