With OCD, the brain circuits driving concerns, fears and anxieties get stuck, like a car in a certain gear or a record skipping incessantly, Lipsman said. The structures are in overdrive.

With OCD, the brain circuits driving concerns, fears and anxieties get stuck, like a car in a certain gear or a record skipping incessantly, Lipsman said. The structures are in overdrive.

That makes any fresh insight into OCD's root causes especially valuable – like a new study pointing to a surprising suspect: the bacteria living in our gut. The research from China explored how the ...

Additionally, we found that certain types of brain cells – particularly medium spiny neurons in a brain region called the striatum – were strongly linked to the OCD genes we identified.

More information: Nora I. Strom et al, Genome-wide analyses identify 30 loci associated with obsessive–compulsive disorder, Nature Genetics (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41588-025-02189-z ...

Mind Brain changes with eating disorders similar to those in OCD and autism In children with anorexia nervosa or other restrictive eating disorders, changes in the brain’s outer layer don’t ...

Three types of bacteria appeared to be protective against OCD: Proteobacteria, Ruminococcaceae, and Bilophila. Another three seemed to increase the risk of OCD: Bacillales, Eubacterium, and ...