The 5-HT2C (serotonin-2C, HTR2C) receptor is implicated in the pathophysiology of eating disorders. There is a common polymorphism of the human 5-HT2C receptor at codon 23 (cys23ser) which has been reported to be a risk factor for certain psychiatric disorders and a predictor of their pharmacotherapeutic response. We examined whether this variant was associated with the eating disorder bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder in a well-characterized community sample of 163 women, aged 16-35 years. Genotype and allele frequencies were entirely unaltered in both groups, compared to screened healthy controls from the same population. We conclude that allelic variation does not account for the involvement of the 5-HT2C receptor in these eating disorders.