The Unified Theory of the Nervous System
and Behavior
Cognitive Philosophy /Brain Theory by Steven Michael Harris
Some Suspect OCD Link to Strep in Kids (ABC News, May 21, 2005)
What started out as a sore throat for Maury Cronauer two years ago developed into a frightening cascade of symptoms.
She began to exhibit bizarre behavior — blurting out disturbing thoughts, obsessively washing her hands until her skin was raw. Her parents were completely baffled — and frightened.
"When she would wake up in the morning we weren't sure what Maury we were going to get," said her mother, Michelle Cronauer.
A Surprising Diagnosis
Obsessive compulsive disorder afflicts millions of Americans, creating in them irrational fears and obsessions, such as fear of germs, fear of plastic utensils, or a constant need to wash one's hands.
It also affects approximately 1 percent of children, including Maury, now 6 years old.
What was most surprising to the Cronauers was that doctors linked Maury's obsessive compulsive behavior to a common ailment in children — strep throat.
The theory is not yet widely accepted in the medical community, but it has been gaining more support.
That any disease that causes stress in the system could cause other neurological problems or exacerbate them is no surprise. The conclusions or theories implied in this article are premature.
If there is a statistical correlation between Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Strep Throat, this does not mean that Step is the cause of such OCD although it is possible that it could be a contributing factor in these patients. Those with the kind of stress in their system that might make them predisposed to developing OCD might also have impaired immune systems that make them less resistant to Strep and more sensitive to its effects, for instance.
My biggest reason for writing about this press release is that it is obviously flawed in the narrow scope of the reasoning concerning the Strep infection and just one disorder (OCD). When only that one disorder is being studied in relation to the contribution of some other stress (Strep), then the opportunity to really understand what leads to disorders and the relationship of disorders to each other is missed.
It is a mistake to suggest that OCD is one thing that might be caused by one other thing such as Strep. Studies of other disorders in regards to other early childhood diseases need also be done and the mapping of the relationships of those various data to each other completed before any proclamation be announced in this kind of press release.
I posit that stress causes disorders and the location of that stress in the brain communicates stress in other parts of the brain according to the connectivity of the brain. Understanding this mapping of stress and the tendencies of such will let you predict many things. For instance: OCD has a relationship to stresses that accumulate in the switchboards of the brain (connections/cells/regions of the brain that have the greatest connectivity to the greatest diversity of regions of the brain dealing with diversity of subject matter). If you develop an understanding of what disorders are caused by stress buildup in these same parts of the brain (other disorders being caused by different amounts of stress in the same regions or by stress dispersed somewhat differently in the same regions or regions closely connected to these regions), then you can predict that studies of other disorders will show some statistical connection between a variety of stressors (such as Strep) and these various other problems depending on when that stress/insult/disease occurs and when these various other disorders tend to appear in individuals.
There is a close correlation between OCD and Depression, for instance. An examination of the characteristics of OCD will also show that there are a lot of autistic traits in these persons (remember that one of the defining symptoms of autism is the compulsion to repeat various activities) and so I am willing to bet that autistic realm traits will increase after Strep infection as well. (This means not only the appearance of some autistic traits in those who did not show such traits before the Strep, but also the increase in the severity of already existing autistic traits in those who had some autistic or Asperger’s or ADD/ADHD traits before being exposed to Strep infection.)
When these things are not studied at the same time and included in the discussion this illusion that OCD is just one thing with a unique relationship to Strep fosters misunderstanding of the nervous system and the relationships of disorders to each other as well (especially those disorders with various amounts of concurrence in individuals). The brain does not separate these problems out in such neat little packages with separate genetic switches as is implied in so many of these discussions, so this press release as it is presented here is fairly meaningless without these other factors being considered. All it does say is that stress can have an effect on the body and show up in other symptoms later (disease/infection is a stress that can cause other disorders to appear or to get worse).
Look at these other disorders and Strep. I am sure that there will be some relationship between the Strep and these other disorders as well, although the statistical relationship will be lesser (or greater) depending on the similarity of the causes of these various disorders to each other.
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