Scientists at Yale University have discovered that the body’s own immune system might play a role in causing obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in some children. Their study found that certain antibodies—proteins usually used by the immune system to fight infections—may actually be attacking specific brain cells in children with a condition known as PANDAS.
This condition has long puzzled doctors and researchers, and the new findings bring us a step closer to understanding its cause.
The study, led by Dr. Christopher Pittenger and published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, focused on a group of children who had both OCD and signs of PANDAS, a condition first proposed in the 1990s. PANDAS stands for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections.
It is believed that in some children, a strep infection—like the kind that causes strep throat—can trigger the immune system to mistakenly attack parts of the brain, leading to sudden mental health symptoms.
Children with PANDAS often show typical signs of OCD, such as repeated thoughts and behaviors. But they may also experience other strange symptoms, such as extreme anxiety when separated from parents, frequent urination, subtle problems with movement, or even refusing to eat. These symptoms usually come on very suddenly.
Although between 1% and 3% of children are diagnosed with OCD by age 17, no one knows how many of these cases are caused by PANDAS. Some doctors question whether PANDAS is really a separate condition, but many parents and some researchers believe that it explains a large number of childhood OCD cases.
In the Yale study, the researchers studied blood samples and brain activity from 27 children diagnosed with PANDAS and compared them to 23 children without the condition. They discovered that many of the children with PANDAS had high levels of a specific antibody that binds to brain cells called interneurons.
These interneurons are important because they help control how signals move through the brain. The antibodies seemed to focus on an area called the striatum, which helps control movement and is also involved in mental health conditions like OCD.
When these antibodies attach to the interneurons, they reduce their normal activity. This interference with brain signaling could be a key reason why children with PANDAS develop OCD-like symptoms so suddenly.
Interestingly, similar issues have been found in adults with Tourette syndrome—a condition that causes people to make sudden movements or sounds, called tics. People with Tourette’s also lack some of the same interneurons in the striatum. This suggests that problems with these specific brain cells might be involved in more than one condition, including both OCD and Tourette syndrome.
The Yale team plans to continue studying this issue in children with other forms of OCD and with Tourette’s, to see how common these antibodies are and how they affect brain function.
This discovery could eventually help doctors better identify which children have PANDAS and may even lead to new ways to treat or prevent these symptoms. For now, it adds a valuable piece to the puzzle of how the immune system and brain may interact in mental health disorders.
If you care about mental health, please read studies about how dairy foods may influence depression risk, and 6 foods you can eat to improve mental health.
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