Immune system and obsessive-compulsive disorder

During the last decades, the interest devoted to the relationship between the nervous and immune systems has been gradually increasing, up to the point of becoming one of the most fascinating current research topics in medicine. Indeed, a growing bulk of literature has supported the existence of complex and dynamic interactions between the two systems, and how their interplay might be involved in both healthy and pathological conditions (Kerr et al., 2005; Marazziti et al., 2015). Not surprisingly, dysfunctions of the immune system and/or related alterations the hypothalamic-pituitary axis (HPA) have been implicated in the pathophysiology of several neurological and psychiatric disorders (Kerr et al., 2005), such as Alzheimer ’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), HIV encephalopathy, multiple sclerosis (MS), transverse myelitis (TM), depression, dementia, schizophrenia, posttraumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, social phobia, and even obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) (Brambilla et al., 1999; Dell'Osso et al., 2016; Hinze-Selch and Pollmacher, 2001; Kaplin et al., 2005; Leonard and Myint, 2006; Maes et al., 1999; Marazziti et al., 2015; Rapaport and Stein, 1994; Wilson et al., 2002).
Source: Psychoneuroendocrinology - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Source Type: research