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   Gut microbiome dysregulation implicated in OCD   
      
   Publish date: April 17, 2017   
   By: Bruce Jancin  Clinical Psychiatry News   
      
   Vitals   
   AT ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION CONFERENCE 2017   
      
      
   SAN FRANCISCO – Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder have a gut   
   bacterial microbiome marked by diminished species diversity and abundance,   
   compared with that of healthy controls, according to the first study to   
   examine the issue.   
      
   Results of this pilot study also suggest that OCD patients with tic disorder   
   have a distinctly different gut microbiome, compared with other OCD patients,   
   Jasmine Turna said at the annual conference of the Anxiety and Depression   
   Association of America.   
      
      
   Jasmine Turna, a PhD candidate in neuroscience at McMaster University in   
   Hamilton, Ont.   
   Bruce Jancin/Frontline Medical News   
   Jasmine Turna   
   The impetus for this first-ever study of the gut microbiome in OCD was the   
   mounting evidence that the microbiome may play a broad role in modulating   
   bidirectional communication between the brain and gut. Gut bacteria are known   
   to produce serotonin and    
   dopamine, neurotransmitters implicated in numerous psychiatric disorders.   
   Moreover, rodent studies suggest that manipulation of the gut microbiome using   
   a probiotic can diminish pathologic anxiety (Behav Pharmacol. 2014   
   Feb;25[1]:71-9). And anxiety is a    
   predominant symptom in OCD, explained Ms. Turna, a PhD candidate in   
   neuroscience at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.   
      
   She reported on 11 OCD patients and 12 healthy controls who underwent gut   
   microbiome analysis using DNA extracted from their morning stool samples.   
   Results from another nine OCD patients and 10 controls remained pending at the   
   time of the conference but    
   will be completed shortly.   
      
   In addition to the decreased abundance and diversity of bacteria present in   
   the microbiomes of the OCD patients, compared with controls, another key   
   finding was that the OCD patients had increased levels of systemic   
   inflammation. Their mean level of high-   
   sensitivity C-reactive protein was 3.03 mg/L, compared with 1.1 mg/L in the   
   controls. In addition, the microbiome in those OCD patients who had elevated   
   systemic inflammation as defined by a CRP level greater than 2.0 mg/L was more   
   restricted than was    
   that of OCD patients with a normal-range CRP.   
      
   In an interview, Ms. Turna noted that a cross-sectional study such as this is   
   hypothesis generating and not definitive. Even if these findings are   
   replicated, that will not answer the key question of whether the altered   
   microbiome present in OCD patients    
   is a contributing cause or a consequence of the psychiatric disorder. But she   
   and her coinvestigators already have launched a prospective randomized   
   controlled trial that attempts to address this question by having a group of   
   OCD patients regularly    
   consume a probiotic in an effort to diversify their gut microbiome.   
      
   “Maybe getting more fermented foods into the diet – kimchi, miso, yogurt,   
   kefir – could be an adjunctive therapy,” she said. “Right now, OCD   
   research is kind of at a standstill. Our treatments work in a lot of people,   
   but they also don’t work    
   in a lot of people. Our research opens up a new place to explore.”   
      
   Ms. Turna reported having no financial conflicts.   
       
   bjancin@frontlinemedcom.com   
      
      
   http://www.mdedge.com/clinicalpsychiatrynews/article/135918/anxi   
   ty-disorders/gut-microbiome-dysregulation-implicated-ocd   
      
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