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(Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health) A new study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health's Center for Infection and Immunity indicates that pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), Tourette syndrome and/or tic disorder may develop from an inappropriate immune response to the bacteria causing common throat infections.

While scientists have speculated on a link between obsessive-compulsive disorder and childhood infections like strep for more than two decades, a psychology researcher in Israel has now scientifically demonstrated that strep can lead to brain dysfunction and OCD. The breakthrough could lead to new drugs for treating OCD, and may in the future prevent the psychiatric disorder altogether.

New research shows that streptococcal infection does not appear to cause or trigger Tourette syndrome or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Researchers found that people with OCD or Tourette syndrome and tics were no more likely to have had possible strep infections compared to people without these disorders at two years and five years.

Pediatric-onset obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette's disorder (TD) share similarities in their underlying genetic and environmental factors, psychiatric features, and treatment methods. Advances in understanding the neurobiological basis of these disorders and discovering new and more effective therapies are highlighted in a special issue on OCD and TD in Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology.

(Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News) Pediatric-onset obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette's disorder (TD) share similarities in their underlying genetic and environmental factors, psychiatric features, and treatment methods. Advances in understanding the neurobiological basis of these disorders and discovering new and more effective therapies are highlighted in a special issue on OCD and TD in Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology.

(American Academy of Neurology) New research shows that streptococcal infection does not appear to cause or trigger Tourette syndrome or obsessive-compulsive disorder. The research is published in the September 30, 2009, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Researchers have created a new model of obsessive-compulsive disorder that mirrors both symptoms of the disease and the timing of its treatment in humans.

(NIH/National Institute of Mental Health) Criteria for a broadened syndrome of acute onset obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have been proposed by a National Institutes of Health scientist and her colleagues. The syndrome, Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS), includes children and teens that suddenly develop on-again/off-again OCD symptoms or abnormal eating behaviors, along with other psychiatric symptoms -- without any known cause.

(Elsevier) PANDAS is an abbreviation for pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections. This diagnosis was created when clinicians observed that following streptococcal infections, which include strep throat, scarlet fever, and impetigo, children developed tics and symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder.