Strep Linked to OCD

New publicity about the suspected link between strep infection and OCD at ABC News and the New York Times.

Estrogen Levels and OCD

Researchers have linked low levels of estrogen in male mice with OCD. Compulsions were resolved with estrogen administration. See Estrogen Affects Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder for the full article.

Asthma and Allergies - Same Gene Different Expression?

A Columbia university study showed a possible genetic link between major depression and anxiety disorders in mothers and asthma and allergies in their biological offspring. See Kids’ asthma linked to mothers’ depression for the full article.

Epilepsy and Schizophrenia

A Danish study suggests that epilepsy and schizophrenia may share a genetic link or common environmental cause. See Epilepsy, Schizophrenia May Share Genetic Link for the full article.

Anticonvulsants Linked With Birth Defects

Doctors are warning women with bipolar disorder and others on anticonvulsants, specifically phenobarbitol and valproate (Depakote), of the raised risk of birth defects. They suggest discussing the possibility of switching drugs with their physicians before getting pregnant. See Epilepsy, Bipolar Drugs Carry Birth Defect Risks for the whole article.

Melatonin Agonist May Help Treat Bipolar Depression

People with bipolar disorder may get relief by adding a melatoninergic antidepressant to their drug regiment. See Melatonin Agonist Shows Benefits in Treating Bipolar Depression for the whole article.

Creating Disease to Sell Drugs

Mother Jones' assistant online editor Bradford Plumer writes in-depth about the creation of diseases by pharmaceutical companies, in large part due to the patent system, which offers a strong financial incentive to find new diseases for old drugs. Plumer also notes that the credibility of scientists who are sincerely trying to understand disease is compromised as so many of their peers are lured in by the lucrative offers of the drug companies to promote their products, whether or not patients really need them. See Licensed to Ill for the whole article.

New NIH Studies on the Effectiveness of Psychotropic Medications to be Released

The results of federally-funded studies on drugs and brain disorders, including bipolar disorder, major depression, and schizophrenia, will soon be released and will help doctors, who have been prescribing drugs based on their own clinical experiences, rather than evidence from studies, be better able to prescribe appropriate drugs for their patients. Previous studies have only shown drug efficacy with targeted populations and do not compare the effectiveness of different drugs nor do they test the effectiveness on the many individuals with more than one brain disorder and those with severe cases. See Studies could alter treatment for depression, schizophrenia for the whole article.

Medication For Lou Gehrig’s Disease May Help People With OCD

A small study at the Yale School of Medicine hinged their research on glutamate, a neurotransmitter, using a riluzole, a glutamate modulating agent, on 13 patients with OCD. See Medication Eases OCD Symptoms.

Postpartum depression in the United States may be triggered by a low dietary intake of essential fatty acid DHA

See Fatty acid could offset postpartum depression and improve babies' development.

Causal Link Found Between Heart Disease and Depression

A UCLA imaging study shows heart failure patients with depression have significant loss of brain tissue in areas that regulate the autonomic nervous system, the same area of the brain that shows changes in people with major depression. The tissue damage interferes with the ability of the cardiovascular system to respond quickly to changes in blood pressure and heart rate, which may explain the depression link. See Heart Failure Patients Show Depression-Linked Brain Injury.

Depression Worsens Heart Disease

See Study: Depression Worsens Heart Disease.

Lyme Disease, Allergies, and Brain Disorders

With spring in the air, I thought it was worth bringing to your attention two connections to brain disorders: Lyme disease and allergies.

According to researchers at Columbia University in New York, in their report, Lyme disease: a neuropsychiatric illness, they state that “A broad range of psychiatric reactions have been associated with Lyme disease including paranoia, dementia, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, panic attacks, major depression, anorexia nervosa, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Depressive states among patients with late Lyme disease are fairly common, ranging across studies from 26% to 66%.” (See also Psychiatric manifestations of Lyme borreliosis.)

In their recently published article, “Allergy, Depression, and Suicide” (Directions in Psychiatry; Hatherleigh), Drs. Teodor T. Postolache (University of Maryland School of Medicine), Hirsh D. Komarow (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health), John W. Stiller (University of Maryland School of Medicine), and Leonardo Tonelli (University of Maryland School of Medicine ) wrote about the reported association between allergies and depression and a possible connection between allergy and suicide.

In it they discuss their hypothesis “that biological environmental factors that result in inflammation and cytokine release at the level of the respiratory mucosa could trigger depression and suicide. These factors include viruses, bacteria, allergens, and pollution particles…” The researchers also discuss the causal relationship between depression/suicidal ideation and cytokine treatment and/or other immunotherapy.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation for Treating Depression and Other Brain Disorders

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) may be more tolerable and safer to administer than electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to treat depression, schizophrenia, and other brain disorders that affect thoughts and emotions. See News on Therapies for Depression Using Magnetic Stimulation of the Brain.

Cells in Nose May Shed Light on Brain Disorders

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and collaborating institutions found altered nerve cell function in olfactory receptor neurons – those that transmit smell – in patients with bipolar disorder. Because these cells share many characteristics with nerve cells in the brain, making these smell cells useful models for studying the neural effects of brain disorders that affect thoughts and emotions. See Olfactory receptor cells may provide clues to psychiatric disease.

EEG Responses to Sound – A new diagnostic took for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder?

Brains of individuals with schizophrenia react more strongly to noise in EEG responses than do their healthy counterparts. The Liverpool research team will examine the brains of people with bipolar disorder to see if their responses differ from those with schizophrenia, which may help to differentiate the two disorders from the onset of symptoms. The two disorders have overlapping symptoms, but different medications are necessary for effective treatment. See A sound diagnosis for brain disorder and Research team develops new test for diagnosing schizophrenia.

Nutrional Supplement May Help With Depression

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers found that adding a specific nutritional supplement to a standard antidepressant may help individuals who have not responded to single-drug treatment for clinical depression. The nutritional supplement, SAMe (S-Adenosy-L-Methionine), is a substance found in every human cell and is a commonly used dietary supplement. See Small study shows SAMe may improve treatment of depression.

Prenatal Exposure to Famine Linked with Increased Risk of Schizophrenia

Several studies support the assertion that malnutrition during fetal development and childhood affect risk of developing schizophrenia in adulthood. See Prenatal Exposure to Famine Tied to Increased Schizophrenia Risk and Researchers Find Nutrition-Schizophrenia Link.

The Infection Connection

“A number of chronic human illnesses are triggered, either directly or indirectly, by microorganisms,” says Ronald Luftig of the Louisiana State University Medical Center, one of the authors of the report, Microbial Triggers of Chronic Human Illness. In this report, Luftig links infection to psychiatric illnesses. “…Researching the causes of these chronic illnesses, infectious or otherwise, will lead to the development of therapies, cures and strategies for prevention that will affect the lives of millions of individuals,” he says.

A Possible Alternative to Exposure Therapy May Reduce Anxiety Without Heightening It

Many therapists who practice exposure therapy want to elicit as much anxiety from their patients as possible as a way to desensitize them to that which causes them extreme anxiety. Therapists often refuse to give their patients rational explanations for why exposures to their feared situations or items will not cause them harm because, they say, it could reduce their anxiety and lessen the results of the treatment. For many patients, the anxiety is too much to bare. The question I have is, is this the best approach? Ultimately, how does it leave patients down the road? And what about the many patients who simply cannot endure the heightened levels of anxiety? There is another method -- Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy, or DIRT for short, where education by experts, exactly the opposite of what’s being commonly touted by behavioralists, has helped most patients significantly by reducing their fears rathering than increasing them. This approach needs to be tested on larger numbers of patients to see if it is truly effective, but it appears to have the added benefit of involving the patient’s intellect, which seems useful considering that what makes anxiety a disorder is its inappropriateness, or irrationality.

See Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy (DIRT) for treatment-resistant compulsive washing and Treating obsessive compulsive disorder: a new role for infectious diseases physicians?

Paxil May Cause Birth Defects

The New York Times Reports on the drug manufacturer's report on the increased risk of taking Paxil during the first trimester of pregnanacy.


Paxil Alert for Pregnant Women