Latest Obsessive–compulsive disorder Stories

Bone-marrow transplants cure mice of hair-pulling compulsionA Nobel Prize-winning University of Utah geneticist discovered that bone marrow transplants cure mutant mice who pull out their hair compulsively. The study provides the first cause-and-effect link between immune system cells and mental illness, and points toward eventual new psychiatric treatments."We're showing there is a direct relationship between a psychiatric disorder and the immune system, specifically cells named...

Scientists earlier found that mice missing one of a group of core developmental genes known as the Hox genes developed an odd and rather unexpected pathology: the mutant animals groomed themselves compulsively to the point that they were removing their own hair and leaving self-inflicted open sores on their skin. Now, they've found a surprising connection between the Hoxb8 gene and the behavior that looks an awful lot like that of people with an obsessive compulsive spectrum disorder...

A single, very unusual family with Tourette syndrome (TS) has led Yale School of Medicine researchers to identify a rare mutation in a gene that is required to produce histamine. The finding provides a new framework to understand many years of data on the role of histamine function in the brain and points to a potentially novel approach to treatment of tics and Tourette.The study is published online May 5 in the New England Journal of Medicine by a team led by Matthew State, M.D., the Donald...

LOS ANGELES, April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a disorder of the brain where people experience obsessive thoughts, images, ideas or impulses - and they can't get past them. The day-to-day existence for severe OCD sufferers is dire. Untreated, they lead lives of self-punishment, fear and isolation that can result in job loss, broken families, bankruptcy and in some cases death. "The OCD Project" challenges six severe OCD sufferers to face their fears in a...

Integrated functional network could explain some mysteries of Parkinson's and dystoniaPITTSBURGH -- Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have found new evidence that the basal ganglia and the cerebellum, two important areas in the central nervous system, are linked together to form an integrated functional network. The findings are available online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."The basal ganglia and the cerebellum are two major subcortical...

PANDAS is an abbreviation for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infections. This diagnosis was created when clinicians observed that following streptococcal infections, which include strep throat, scarlet fever, and impetigo, children developed tics and symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).In a new longitudinal study appearing in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier, researchers identified new infections in children and...

A new study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet provides evidence that basic human learning systems use areas of the brain that also exist in the most primitive vertebrates, such as certain fish, reptiles and amphibians. The study involved an investigation into the limbic striatum, one of the evolutionarily oldest parts of the brain, and the ability to learn movements, consciously and unconsciously, through repetition. "Our results strongly substantiate the theories...

Psychosurgery is making a comeback. Recently published case series have shown encouraging results of so-called deep brain stimulation (DBS) in treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder, depressive disorders, and Tourette syndrome. In the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, authors Jens Kuhn (University of Cologne) and Theo P J Gründer (Max Planck Institute, Cologne) and their co-authors provide an introduction to the method (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2010;...

When a gene implicated in human autism is disabled in mice, the rodents show learning problems and obsessive, repetitive behaviors, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.The researchers also report that a drug affecting a specific type of nerve function reduced the obsessive behavior in the animals, suggesting a potential way to treat repetitive behaviors in humans. The findings appear in the Feb. 24 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience."Clinically, this study...

In people with body dysmorphic disorder, distorted self-image could be the result of the brain's abnormal processing of visual inputEveryone checks themselves in the mirror now and then, but that experience can be horrifying for individuals suffering from body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD, a psychiatric condition that causes them to believe, wrongly, that they appear disfigured and ugly. These people tend to fixate on minute details "” every tiny blemish looms huge "” rather than viewing...