A mental health organisation is now expanding research to see if a strain of bacteria may cause children to develop a particular condition with OCD-type symptoms.
The study by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), based in Maryland, United States, will see if there is a link between Streptococcus bacteria and a condition called Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS).
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Cause: Research is to begin to find out if the Streptococcus strain of bacteria could be the cause of an OCD type condition in children
Cause: Research is to begin to find out if the Streptococcus strain of bacteria could be the cause of an OCD type condition in children
Susan Swedo, Managing Director of the NIH, said: "Parents will describe children with PANS as overcome by a 'ferocious' onset of obsessive thoughts, compulsive rituals and overwhelming fears.'
Scientists think that after it detects a Streptococcus infection, the body's immune system responds by creating antibodies which sometimes mistakenly attack the heart, joints, and brain.
In children, this attack on the brain can cause the bundle of nerves called the basal ganglia to become inflamed.
This, in turn, can lead children to develop, seemingly overnight, severe symptoms of OCD and anorexia.
According to the NIH children with the condition can appear terror-stricken, suffer extreme separation anxiety, shifting from laughter to tears for no apparent reason and regress to temper tantrums, "baby talk," or bedwetting.
Other symptoms include undergoing sudden deterioration in school performance or learning abilities and exhibiting sensory and motor abnormalities.
The NIH hopes the study will improve diagnosis and treatment.
It also wants to find out if there is an alternative cause of PANS apart from Streptococcus bacteria.
Between one and two per cent of the UK population are thought to suffer from OCD although most people only have minor symptoms.
One of the most common examples is an irrational fear of germs and dirt.
Other obsessions include worries about security issues such as having left the cooker on or the house unlocked, a need for everything in life to be ordered with extreme precision, and a fear of making a mistake.
Such obsessions make the sufferer feel anxious. In an effort to ease that anxiety they take actions such as washing their hands every few minutes or going around the house checking everything is locked.
Many sufferers know they are being irrational but feel powerless to stop.
The NIMH has now launched a project to find such cases and improve diagnosis and treatment, including a study to see how well IVIG, a human antibody treatment used to dampen autoimmune reactions, reverses the syndrome.
It also wants to find out how many such cases are related to strep infections, or if there are other causes.
The NIMH has now put out guidelines for diagnosing Sydenham's chorea whenever it appears, whether or not the child is known to have had a recent strep infection.
Tracking all cases this way should allow researchers to investigate causes more thoroughly, as well as diagnostic signs, and treatments.
this link between bacteria and Obsessive-Compulsive disorder. I have noticed that this is a similar treatment that all oppositional truths get when they first contradict the established dogma. Perhaps it has to do with the already written papers, the established treatment protocol, the body of knowledge in the scientific establishment. These facts combine to force the 'new info' to be discovered and rediscovered over a period of a quarter of a century that allows the present to be brought up to speed without hurting the economy or income of the establishment.