Is There a link with Strep Throat and OCD?

By BrainPhysics Staff, Thu, November 11, 2010

A study looks to see if strep throat in youth can cause OCD in adulthood:

"For years, researchers have wondered about a connection between children getting strep throat and later showing symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a frequently debilitating condition affecting millions of Americans in which those afflicted think repetitive thoughts they don’t want to or perform compulsive, ritualistic behaviors they wish they didn’t have to—like washing their hands many, many times (sometimes until they bleed) or repeatedly checking a light switch to make sure it is off (even if they have to do so for an hour).

The thinking has been that strep throat bacteria trigger the production of antibodies that end up not only targeting strep, but “mistakenly” acting on an enzyme in the brain, which is involved in making brain chemical messengers. In so doing, the antibodies to the strep throat infection pathologically alter the balance of these chemical messengers."

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Strep Infection

Submitted by PSU on Fri, 11/12/2010 - 1:47pm.

When I was 10 I had a strep infection that spread throughout my blood stream and of all places ended up in my feet (sounds strange but true). The doctor caught it after about two months and administered antibiotics. After that I had a year episode that I thought if I touched my hair I would contract cancer so I had to wash my hands. This went away after a year and I started to have symmetry obsession with lining up shoelaces,etc. That ended soon. I then ended up having depression and OCD when I hit my early 20's and has been off and on over the past 17 years. I would think that OCD would have been prevalent in me from 13-26 years old but hit like a ton of bricks at age 26. Would you recommend that I get a test to detect if their are strep antibodies still in my blood stream or has it been to long ago?

Strep throat may be linked to OCD, autism-spectrum disorders

Submitted by joseph_hanes on Thu, 11/18/2010 - 8:24pm.

There appears to be a connection among strep throat and obsessive-compulsive disorder. A brand new paper intended for publication within the next year outlines this link. There is an estimate that up to 2 percent of children who get strep throat get OCD as a complication. This disorder is known as PANDAS. This strep-OCD connection could also account for some autism and tic-spectrum disorders in children.

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