Link Between OCD and Obesity

Research Flash:

A study meant to be looking  at the brain circuits that are involved in obsessive compulsive behaviour has come up with something altogether unexpected, a link to obesity.

The research that was carried out at the University of Iowa where genes that were suspected to be needed for obsessive compulsive disorder were removed, the mice subsequently were neither suffered from OCD or obesity. 

The researchers suggest the brain circuits that control the two are interlinked, this is important knowledge that can be put forward in helping to treat people with compulsive disorders including OCD and eating disorders. 

The two conditions may seem quite different, but Michael Lutter one of the leaders of the research says that the connection come from our “evolutionary need to eat safe, clean food in times of a food abundance, and to lessen this drive when food is scarce.”

“Food safety has been an issue through the entire course of human evolution – refrigeration is a relatively recent invention. Obsessive behavior, or fear of contamination, may be an evolutionary protection against eating rotten food.”

Read the original article here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130610152002.htm