Does Obsessive Compulsive disorder run in Families?

I think I've got it(I twist the door knob 5-6 times to check if it's locked and do the same to my car door) and I think My Dad may have had it(He would really fuss us out for one rag sitting on a table for instance).

[edit on 13-9-2007 by BigDaveJr]

OCD is hereditary but it can skip generations. My mom and grandfather have it but I don't. I have a friend that has it also and his mom.

I have schizophrenia which is supose to be hereditary but no one in my family has it other then me and I have a very large family.

Psychiatric disorders are funny like that thier unpredictable as to who's gonna get them.

I belive it all comes down to the genes you inherit and suseptablilty. I also belive envoirmental influences play a part as to how disorders are triggerd.

Example: My mom and dad both have straight hair, my grandfather on my moms side is the only one of my grand parents that has curly hair. So either I get it from him or the mailman is my dad.

I learned in school that genes skip generations but not always depending on the prevelance of the genes from both sides of the family.

Yes, it is hereditary:

Many genetic studies published over the past twenty years have repeatedly shown that OCD is hereditary. Early age of onset of OCD may present a significant increase in the risk among the first-degree relatives. However, it is important to note that not all studies demonstrate that it runs in families.

www.kidsmentalhealth.org...

However, I wouldn't self-diagnose something like this. See a professional. There are many things that can cause someone to "fuss over a rag left on the table," aside from OCD.

If you have a concern, see a psychologist or psychiatrist, don't look to people on the internet to tell you if you have a complex mental disorder.

Interesting topic.

Originally posted by wantsome
OCD is hereditary but it can skip generations. My mom and grandfather have it but I don't. I have a friend that has it also and his mom.

I have schizophrenia which is supose to be hereditary but no one in my family has it other then me and I have a very large family.

[...]

I belive it all comes down to the genes you inherit and suseptablilty. I also belive envoirmental influences play a part as to how disorders are triggerd.

[...]

I learned in school that genes skip generations but not always depending on the prevelance of the genes from both sides of the family.

Schizophrenia is not necessarily hereditary, there are a lot of theories as to what causes it. The prevailing theories cite it as a disease of the brain itself, including the popular dopamine hypothesis. I recall a study finding that flu strains in pregnant women made the child more likely to develop schizophrenia later. The recognised heredity of schizophrenia is quite low as far as I'm aware, but genetic susceptibility is only usually half the story anyway. As you mentioned, environmental factors are usually needed to nurture or trigger - and usually play the biggest role in psychiatric disorders.

With this in mind, the fact that OCD runs in families is easier to understand. Though there is no gene that 'causes' the disorder, the gene SLC1A1, which regulates the flow of glutamate in and out of brain cells, has recently been marked as a bit of a candidate in facilitating OCD's development.

However, susceptibility alone isn't an explanation, and requires nurture. It stands to reason that children with obsessive compulsive parents will learn hallmark OCD behaviours and personality traits. For something behavioural like OCD, this would most likely be the case regardless of any genetic predisposition.

And because it is a characteristically behavioural problem, it can be managed and you can 'retrain' the disorder, probably through something like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Like MajorMalfunction said, online forums aren't really the best resource for diagnostic criterion. Sickos like me would have you believe all kinds of things.

[edit on 14-9-2007 by Dumbfirefly]

Originally posted by Dumbfirefly
Interesting topic.

Originally posted by wantsome
OCD is hereditary but it can skip generations. My mom and grandfather have it but I don't. I have a friend that has it also and his mom.

I have schizophrenia which is supose to be hereditary but no one in my family has it other then me and I have a very large family.

[...]

I belive it all comes down to the genes you inherit and suseptablilty. I also belive envoirmental influences play a part as to how disorders are triggerd.

[...]

I learned in school that genes skip generations but not always depending on the prevelance of the genes from both sides of the family.

Schizophrenia is not necessarily hereditary, there are a lot of theories as to what causes it. The prevailing theories cite it as a disease of the brain itself, including the popular dopamine hypothesis. I recall a study finding that flu strains in pregnant women made the child more likely to develop schizophrenia later. The recognised heredity of schizophrenia is quite low as far as I'm aware, but genetic susceptibility is only usually half the story anyway. As you mentioned, environmental factors are usually needed to nurture or trigger - and usually play the biggest role in psychiatric disorders.

With this in mind, the fact that OCD runs in families is easier to understand. Though there is no gene that 'causes' the disorder, the gene SLC1A1, which regulates the flow of glutamate in and out of brain cells, has recently been marked as a bit of a candidate in facilitating OCD's development.

However, susceptibility alone isn't an explanation, and requires nurture. It stands to reason that children with obsessive compulsive parents will learn hallmark OCD behaviours and personality traits. For something behavioural like OCD, this would most likely be the case regardless of any genetic predisposition.

And because it is a characteristically behavioural problem, it can be managed and you can 'retrain' the disorder, probably through something like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Like MajorMalfunction said, online forums aren't really the best resource for diagnostic criterion. Sickos like me would have you believe all kinds of things.

[edit on 14-9-2007 by Dumbfirefly]

I agree with most of what you said but as to schozophrenia thier are a ton of hypothosis's out there. I've read arcticles that it's caused from , Lead poisening, to a virus founnd in cat fecies, to prenatal flue, you name it thiers a alot ideas floating around.

The dopamine hypothosis is highly contravertial. I know most typical and atypical antipychotic medications block dopamine but thier is a study that was just released showing that glutamate plays more of a role then previously thought. I read an article a few weeks ago that their is two medications in the works that don't block dopamine instead they alter the role that glutamate plays. I think Eli Lilly is developing them and thier in the testing phase. I also read that in trials they showed a 33% sucsess rate which was about the norm when compaired to most antipychotics.

Heres a quick read on geneology and schiz I thought you might find interesting.

There is no doubt a strong genetic component to schizophrenia - those who have immediate relatives with a history of this or other psychiatric diseases (for example, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, depression, etc) have a significantly increased risk for developing schizophrenia over that of the general population. However, twin studies have shown that simple genetic transmission is far from the whole story - if one identical twin has schizophrenia, the risk for the other twin (who has the exact same genes as his/her sibling) is only about 50%. This indicates a complexity of genetics and environment that is not yet well understood, rather than a case of single or multiple gene presence in the body automatically confer

You're right, as I acknowledged there are hell of a lot of theories flying around, though I had never even heard of some of the ones you mentioned. The Dopamine Hypothesis was still the most popular idea when I stopped my school pyschology study two years ago. Since then dopamine inhibiting drugs have been blocking fewer receptors and now D2 seems to be the favourite.

From what I had read about the role of glutamate, the blocking of glutamate receptors (with Ket or PCP) shows a markedly higher sensitivity to dopamine, due to the resultant rise in D2 receptors in the brain - which remains the popular target for antipsychotics like clozapine and quetiapine. Can you give me some references about the new glutamate only treatments? Sounds like I'm behind on something interesting.

That said, perhaps there's a reason it's been slow to reach some ears. There's been nasty talk flying around about the motivations of pharmaceutical companies in their promotion of dopamine inhibitors as cures. It comes maybe as a pleasant surprise then that Eli Lilly are doing something seemingly virtuous for a change after the Zyprexia debacle .

While dopamine inhibitors have revolutionised the treatment of psychosis, I think it's good that research is being done (even if they've been forced, like Eli Lilly) into other contributing neurotransmitters to fine tune treatment rather than settling on the easy fix.


apologies for the multiple edits, it's late and my typing is abysmal
[edit on 14-9-2007 by Dumbfirefly]

[edit on 14-9-2007 by Dumbfirefly]

[edit on 14-9-2007 by Dumbfirefly]

Originally posted by BigDaveJr
I twist the door knob 5-6 times to check if it's locked and do the same to my car door

I'm not going to say that you do or don't have OCD, but the behavior you describe doesn't sound pathological to me.

People with OCD find that their rituals prevent them from going about their daily lives.

If you washed your hands 100 times a day, that would be a problem.

If you checked your doors so much that you were late for work or if you did get to work, and you had a problem getting inside to punch in because you couldn't stop checking your car door, that would be a problem.

All pathological behavior is normal behavior. It becomes pathological when it becomes harmful.

So, if you if you check your doors several times to make sure you don't do something stupid like going off for the day with your house or car unlocked all day, that's being really careful.

If you check those locks so many times that you can't get anything done or go about your business, you've got a problem.

As always, if you think you have a problem, consult a professional.

OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE PERSONALITY DISORDER

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

[edit on 2007/9/14 by GradyPhilpott]

Have you had a lot of strep infections?

The following is an interesting take on it....

runews.rockefeller.edu...

reply to post by CAPT PROTON



Nice find Capt

A very interesting article indeed...They make a good case for this kind of bug to possibly have all sorts of neurological effects...

And just think how common and widespread strep is ? I'm sure most of us come into contact with one form of it or another every day, and its only the nasty ones that make us ill...Or we're sick with something else and that leaves us vulnerable to it...

Peace

Originally posted by CAPT PROTON
Have you had a lot of strep infections?

The following is an interesting take on it....

runews.rockefeller.edu...

I've had strep throat a few times in My life.

Dumbfirefly heres the link to the Schiz and Glutamate article. If your interested theirs alot of good reading on this site.

www.schizophrenia.com...

reply to post by GradyPhilpott


People with very mild cases of OCD can function just fine without even knowing they have it. I have a very mild case, but it only shows up in certain things I do. The biggest one is when I'm on the computer. I HAVE to have a certain order to the windows I'm using. If I accidentally close one, I have to close them all and reorder them in the "proper" order. If I don't, then I really can't stand to do anything on the computer until they are.

I have a couple of other fairly minor things, but that's the major one for me. It's still OCD, but it's so minor that most people wouldn't even notice it.

I do alot of things like that do, but it's not really bad. Making sure things are really off or still where I put them, things like that.

No one else in my family (that I know of) does it to though.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Well, by that criterion OCD is very common.

For myself, I can't lock a door unless I have a set of keys in my hand and if by the time I get to my car, I can't remember having locked the apt. door, I'll go back to make sure it's done.

I've actually locked myself out of motel and hotel rooms because I had my car keys in my hand and not the little magnetic card they use these days.

Maybe that's mild OCD, but I think it's because I know how absent minded I can be and I know how many times I've locked my keys in my car or my apartment and how many times I've forgotten to lock my front door or when I was in the Marine Corps, my locker, thus having fallen prey to the less than honest.

When I was in college and grad school, I read every assignment multiple times and I collected data for papers almost incessantly and I used two colors of highlighters to highlight important information in my textbooks. I never knew for sure how much study was enough to get by, so I studied as much as I possibly could.


I have eleven watches and eleven clocks in my small apartment. Not because I need that many, but I'm "obsessive" about timepieces.

Maybe these things make me eccentric, but they don't or haven't derailed my life.

You might have features of OCD, but unless your life is derailed by these behaviors, I doubt that you meet criteria for the disorder and that's very important. Disorders must meet criteria so that the clinical definition doesn't becomes meaningless.


[edit on 2007/9/17 by GradyPhilpott]

Sorry Grady, but it's still OCD. Whether it's mild in my case, or whether it's major. It still would be diagnosed as OCD.

Symptoms of OCD can range from mild to severe. In most cases, people know their obsessions do not represent true dangers and realize their compulsive behavior is strange or bizarre. However, deep down they are afraid that their fears might be real, and that something bad might happen if they don't act on them. People with mild OCD may check repeatedly whether they've locked the door or turned off the light. Their symptoms do not interfere with everyday life, however, and they may even successfully hide them from others.

www.hmc.psu.edu...