Jump to content
SurvivingAntidepressants.org is temporarily closed to new registrations until 1 April ×

German Researchers Discover Cause of OCD


Distraut

Recommended Posts

German Researchers Discover Cause of OCD

 

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can take many forms. Perhaps someone washes her hands over and over again, leading to cuts and skin damage. Or maybe she can’t fall asleep at night until she’s gotten out of bed to make sure the door is locked. Perhaps she always orders objects in a specific, uniform way.

While these behaviors might seem innocuous, they are actually driven by intrusive thoughts and irrational fears that an OCD sufferer can dwell on for hours a day. While the cause of obsessive-compulsive disorder was previously unknown, a new study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry has finally shed light on a potential source in the brain.

By tinkering with mice models, a team of researchers from Germany found that rodents with a deficiency of the SPRED2 protein engaged in excessive grooming rituals. This protein generally inhibits signals from sliding along a pathway called the Ras/ERK-MAP kinase cascade. Without SPRED2, signal pathways become overactive.

Here’s why that matters in the brain: The SPRED2 protein is normally prevalent in areas like the basal ganglia and amygdala, which are responsible for functions like decision-making, emotional reactions, voluntary motor control, and habitual behaviors. Without that protein inhibitor, the initiator of these pathways (the receptor tyrosine kinase TrkB) runs on overdrive. A person with OCD may not be able to stop specific thoughts and behaviors, because signals are flying unchecked down the Ras/ERK-MAP kinase cascade pathway in these key regions of the brain. Think of it like a water slide of thoughts you can't turn off or slow down because you're missing the knob that turns off the water — the SPRED2 protein is the knob.

Similar to eating disorders, anxiety, and other mental health issues, obsessive-compulsive disorder is currently treated with various antidepressants — which the team did use to effectively treat the condition in their experiment. However, the scientific community has been searching for that underlying mechanism of OCD, so doctors can use more targeted, and perhaps better, treatment methods.

According to study researcher Kai Schuh, a professor at the Institute of Physiology at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität in Germany, discovering the link between OCD and the Ras/ERK-MAP kinase cascade may be a crucial step. “Our study delivers a valuable new model that allows the disease mechanisms to be investigated and new therapy options for obsessive-compulsive disorders to be tested,” he told Science Daily.

Perhaps the best part? Drugs that inhibit the Ras/ERK-MAP kinase cascade are already on the market for treating cancer. So, it’s possible that a more effective method for OCD may already be in existence — and hopefully on the way sooner rather than later.

cannabis: Spring 2002 - Dec. 2007; regularly smoked, stopped cold turkey; symptoms: paranoid and depressed

Paroxetine: 20 mg July 2008, 40 mg October, 20 mg spring 2009, 0 mg summer 2009

Depakote (sodium valproate): October 2008 - Spring 2009

Haloperdidol 1 week Oct. 2008, H caused seizures, went to A&E;  stopped taking it.

Citalopram few weeks in the fall of 2009 to deal with withdrawal symptoms from stopping paroxetine

Paroxetine round 2: 20 mg Feb - summer 2010 -20mg don't remeber if I went up to 40mg

Venlafaxine & sodium valproate (again): Sep 2010 - Summer 2012  

SERTRALINE: November 2012 - May 2016 , 50-100mg (few days @ 150mg in Summer '15). a complete freak out at the end of April. 

May 2016 Prescribed Lithium and Abilify HAVE NOT TAKEN

No medications May 2016 - October 2016

Hospitalised - November 13th 2016 - Prescribed 15 mg Mirtazapine/Remeron. Reducing since 24 December 2016.  9 June 2017 medication free. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Vaccines and Pesticides

 

 

PS: + Stress


 

http://www.vaccines.news/2016-12-19-study-pulled-from-publication-after-proving-truth-of-vaccinated-vs-unvaccinated-children.html

 

so vaccines cause NDD's you mean?  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodevelopmental_disorder

 

basically all 'psychiatric' disorders including 'autism'

Cocktail drugged since 9

Genitals went numb

Extreme intestinal gas and pain

Extreme anxiety cant concentrate

All permanent

 

Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD)

http://pssdblog.blogspot.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a load of rubbish.  Complex behaviors like "ODC" are not going to be caused by a single protein - this is the same sort of nonsense that gave rise to the SSRI drugs as "treatments" for depression.  I have absolutely no faith in the medical researchers looking into "mental disorders" as there is no such thing as a mental disorder.  There's probably a drug company that already came up with a SPRED2 protein and they're just having these academics do a "study" on it as a marketing tactic. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use Privacy Policy