genetic explainations

• genes are involved in individuals vunerability to OCD
• lewis observed that 37% of his patients had parents with OCD and 21% had siblings with OCD
• the diathesis stress model shows that certain genes leave people more likely to develop a mental health disorder
• is it proposed that there is a genetic component to OCD which predisposes some individuals to the illness
• OCD is polygenic as there are more than one gene that has been identified in the onset of OCD
• Taylor carried out a meta analysis and found that as many as 230 different genes implicated in developing OCD
• what are canditate genes?

  are ones through research have been implicated in the development of OCD
• what is a COMT gene?

  helps reduce the action of dopamine
• if there is a variation in the COMT gene it decreases the amount of COMT avaliable
• what is the SERT gene?

  this effects the transport of serotonin
• if there is a variation with the SERT gene then it can create lower levels of serotonin which can lead to OCD
• what did Nastadt et al do?

  80 patients with OCd and 343 of their near relatives compared with control group without mental illness and their relatives
• what did Billett et al study?


  a meta analysis of 14 twin studies. On average monozygotic twins are 2x more likely to develop OCD than dizygotic twins
• what did Ozaki et all study?

  a mutation of SERT gene was found in two unrelated families where 6 of the 7 family members had OCD