Genetics of obsessive-compulsive disorder a research update

AB - The genetic study of obsessive-compulsive disorder OCD has made significant gains in the past decade. Genetics of obsessive-compulsive disorder: A research update. School of Medicine. Overview Fingerprint. Abstract The genetic study of obsessive-compulsive disorder OCD has made significant gains in the past decade. Access to Document Link to publication in Scopus. Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder OCD is a psychiatric disorder with multiple symptom dimensions e.

OCD clusters in families and decades of twin studies clearly demonstrate an important role for genetics in the etiology of the disorder. Our results found 55 genetic variants likely to play a role in OCD severity. Some of these variants were near genes that had already been connected to psychiatric disorders, such as major depressive disorder or schizophrenia.

This is relevant because other works have highlighted that different psychiatric disorders may share risk caused by genetic variants: so different changes in the function of the same genes may affect different psychiatric disorders. Other variants may affect the function of genes that are related to the action of glutamate, a molecule that participates in the transmission of neural signals and that is known to be involved in OCD. Unfortunately, we did not find any definitive evidence of genetic involvement, but this was not unexpected, because we had a small set of cases, and this is a problem to pass statistical tests.

Epidemiological studies, including family and twin studies, strongly support a genetic component for OCD. In addition, complex segregation analyses suggest the presence of at least one major gene.