2008 Woodie Awards
Genetics affects gender differences in OCD
Issue date: 5/1/08
Like many psychiatric disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, has an underlying genetic cause for many patients. Now a research team led by Ying Wang of the Hopkins School of Medicine has linked several genetic mutations to OCD and discovered that these mutations differ between men and women.
The study involved 219 families in which at least two siblings, or first or second degree relatives, like cousins, both had OCD. In each case, the symptoms of the disorder had developed before age 18.
Because the exact genes that cause the disease are not known, the research team looked for patterns shared by the chromosomes of those family members who had similar diagnoses.
These genes, which are located close together on a single chromosome and are often inherited together, are said to be linked. A linked genomic area common to many people with OCD suggests that the region may harbor genes that contribute to the disorder.
The research team found six mutations, all of them involving only one DNA base pair change, that were significantly associated with OCD. Four of these mutations were associated only with families where the affected members were all male.
None of these mutations were associated with families in which the affected members were all female. These results suggest a significant difference in what causes OCD to develop in men versus women.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is classified as an anxiety disorder. A person with OCD suffers from repeated and obsessive thoughts and fears, such as of contamination by bacteria, of harming self or others, of moral doubts and so on.
People with OCD are known to have recurrent images of harming a loved one or of somehow contracting HIV. Compulsions are actions such as hand-washing, counting or getting HIV tests, that are performed to relieve the anxiety the obsessions cause.
People with OCD then feel anxious that the action was not enough to prevent the obsession from happening and must compulsively repeat the action.
The study involved 219 families in which at least two siblings, or first or second degree relatives, like cousins, both had OCD. In each case, the symptoms of the disorder had developed before age 18.
Because the exact genes that cause the disease are not known, the research team looked for patterns shared by the chromosomes of those family members who had similar diagnoses.
These genes, which are located close together on a single chromosome and are often inherited together, are said to be linked. A linked genomic area common to many people with OCD suggests that the region may harbor genes that contribute to the disorder.
The research team found six mutations, all of them involving only one DNA base pair change, that were significantly associated with OCD. Four of these mutations were associated only with families where the affected members were all male.
None of these mutations were associated with families in which the affected members were all female. These results suggest a significant difference in what causes OCD to develop in men versus women.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is classified as an anxiety disorder. A person with OCD suffers from repeated and obsessive thoughts and fears, such as of contamination by bacteria, of harming self or others, of moral doubts and so on.
People with OCD are known to have recurrent images of harming a loved one or of somehow contracting HIV. Compulsions are actions such as hand-washing, counting or getting HIV tests, that are performed to relieve the anxiety the obsessions cause.
People with OCD then feel anxious that the action was not enough to prevent the obsession from happening and must compulsively repeat the action.
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