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ADHD / autoimmune / bacteria / iron / common denominator?
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| ironjustice@aol.com 2006-01-13, 1:02 am |
| http://www.mentalhealth.com/mag1/p5m-ocd1.html
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive Compulsion and Tics Linked to Sore Throats [LINK]
_________________________________________________________________
By Pauline Anderson
The Medical Post, May 21, 1996
_________________________________________________________________
New York -- It's not all in their heads.
Parents who suspected their child's strep throat caused subsequent
development of obsessive compulsive (OC) or tic disorders can rest
easy now that research finally confirms this relationship.
The mounting evidence pointing to a link between group A
Beta-hemolytic streptococci and these disorders could eventually lead
to a means of identifying children at risk and the use of preventive
therapy.
The research is so convincing that Dr. Susan Swedo, acting scientific
director at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and head of
the NIMH's section on behavioral pediatrics, said she believes a
throat culture is in order for both the child and family members when
a child presents with acute onset or exacerbation of OC or tic
symptoms.
"Our studies and others on obsessive compulsive disorder are truly
proof that these are neurobiological illnesses, that what was
previously thought to be due to punitive toilet training is now known
to be associated with changes in your brain chemicals, patterns of
responsiveness of glucose metabolism, and now perhaps to be triggered
by an autoimmune reaction."
The evidence shows in susceptible children, the strep infection
triggers the autoimmune response, which affects the basal ganglia and
can lead to symptoms of OC or tic disorder including Tourette's
syndrome.
About 1% of children suffer from OCD and up to 15% of grade-school
children have some sort of tic disorder, although true Tourette's is
very rare, said Dr. Swedo.
Several studies involving antibiotics and immunological treatments in
these children were described by Dr. Swedo during the American
Psychiatric Association annual meeting here. She called some treatment
responses "miraculous".
The studies involve children with PANDAS (pediatric autoimmune
neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections).
To be included in the studies, these kids must have had at least one
strep infection, abrupt onset of symptoms or frequent symptom
exacerbations, and onset before puberty.
These children can display obsessive symptoms including washing,
checking, hoarding, arranging, symmetry rituals and various compulsive
movements. They usually are "squirmy, fidgety" and unable to sit
still, said Dr. Swedo.
One of the red flags for PANDAS is sudden onset, she said. "Nearly all
the patients tell us that the symptoms have exploded in severity on a
specific day or week ... They say they went to bed fine and woke up
the next morning and had (a compulsion) to check."
It's sometimes difficult to make the connection between strep and
onset of OC symptoms because the "dramatic explosion of symptoms" may
not occur until one or two weeks after their strep throat, said Dr.
Swedo.
She described a "classic example" of one little girl whose compulsive
fear of AIDS began when she saw a wrapped hypodermic needle while
visiting the doctor; when her medical records were examined, it turned
out that the reason she was at the pediatrician's in the first place
was because of a strep throat.
Dr. Swedo said she and colleagues have studied over 50 children (36
boys and 14 girls) who fit the PANDAS profile. The mean age of onset
of symptoms for these children was 6-1/2 years for tics and 7-1/2
years for OCD, and their mean age at presentation was about 9-1/2
years, said Dr. Swedo.
The rate of comorbidity in these 50 children was high: 82% met
criteria for tic disorder at some point in time, about three-quarters
met criteria for OCD, and 42% met criteria for attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The researchers are taking a number of steps to try to piece together
the puzzle of PANDAS. One step involves a study of penicillin
prophylaxis. "If you can keep the child from getting a strep infection
then you should be able to keep them from getting exacerbations," said
Dr. Swedo.
Preliminary data on 27 children who completed an eight-month,
double-blind crossover trial of penicillin prophylaxis are encouraging
in improving symptom severity. "Nineteen of the 27 parents chose the
penicillin as their favorite (treatment over placebo), and asked that
their child remain on the penicillin following treatment," said Dr.
Swedo.
Not only were OC and tic symptoms curtailed with treatment, but their
hyperactivity symptomatology also improved, said Dr. Swedo. These
symptoms went from being "almost intolerable" to having only some
inattention and some impulsivity.
The research group is also conducting a randomized controlled trial of
immunoglobulin treatments in seriously affected children to study the
effect of this treatment on the autoimmune reaction affecting the
basal ganglia. The treatment involves plasma exchange or intravenous
immunoglobulin (IVIG).
At the end of a year, all seven of the children who received either
IVIG or plasma exchange had a greater than 80% reduction in symptom
severity. The average length of remission was 42 weeks.
These children were also treated prophylactically with penicillin.
"These treatments are so invasive that we don't want to take a chance
that they would get another strep infection," said Dr. Swedo.
Parents of these children were also encouraged. Four rated their
children as very much improved, one as much improved and only two
rated it as minimally improved after one year. All said they would go
through the treatment again if their child had serious symptoms.
Dr. Swedo said the determination of at risk status for OC following
strep infections may involve several factors. These may include
genetics (about 17% of the parents of children with PANDAS had one or
both parents with OCD), neurodevelopment (a birth trauma that makes
the basal ganglia more susceptible to another insult), immunological
factors, or even a "mutated" strep bacteria.
The PANDAS research is intricately related to that of Sydenham's
chorea, a form of rheumatic fever which has also been linked to strep
infections and immunological responses. Dr. Swedo said children with
PANDAS perhaps have a "dual vulnerability" in that they inherited a
genetic propensity towards rheumatic fever and a propensity towards
OCD which is manifested early on as PANDAS.
Dr. Swedo said the biological marker for rheumatic fever may be useful
in determining a "broader scale" of at risk status for these other
children.
"In an ideal world, you would identify the child at risk before they
ever got their first strep infection, prophylax them against it and
keep them from having onset of symptoms," said Dr. Swedo. "We're not
there yet (but) ... our data suggest that it may be possible within
the next few years."
Dr. Swedo said she welcomes Canadian patients who fit the PANDAS
profile. For more information, call (301) 496-5323.
_________________________________________________________________
Copyright =A9 1996 Maclean Hunter Publishing Limited
Reprinted with permission.
_________________________________________________________________
Internet Mental Health (www.mentalhealth.com) copyright =A9 1995-1997 by
Phillip W. Long, M.D.
_________________________________________________________________
http://tinyurl.com/cbczu
<>
children with ADHD had significantly higher blood iron levels
<>
J Nutr Biochem. 2004 Aug;15(8):467-72. Related Articles, Links
Dietary patterns and blood fatty acid composition in children with
attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in Taiwan.
Chen JR, Hsu SF, Hsu CD, Hwang LH, Yang SC.
Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences, Taipei Medical University,
Taipei
110, Taiwan.
Nutritional factors may be relative to attention-deficit hyperactive
disorder
(ADHD), although the pathogenic mechanism is still unknown. Based on
the work
of others, we hypothesized that children with ADHD have altered dietary
patterns and fatty acid metabolism. Therefore, the aim of this study
was to
evaluate dietary patterns and the blood fatty acid composition in
children with
ADHD in the Taipei area of Taiwan. The present study found that 58
subjects
with ADHD (average age 8.5 years) had significantly higher intakes of
iron and
vitamin C compared to those of 52 control subjects (average age 7.9
years) (P <
0=2E05). The blood total protein content in subjects with ADHD was
significantly
lower than that in control subjects (P < 0.05). On the other hand,
children
with ADHD had significantly higher blood iron levels compared to the
control
children (P < 0.05). Additionally, plasma gamma-linolenic acid (18:3
n-6) in
children with ADHD was higher than that in control children (P < 0.05).
Concerning the composition of other fatty acids in the phospholipid
isolated
from red blood cell (RBC) membranes, oleic acid (18:1n-9) was
significantly
higher, whereas nervonic acid (24:1n-9), linoleic acid (18:2n-6),
arachidonic
acid (20:4n-6), and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3) were significantly
lower in
subjects with ADHD (P < 0.05). Our results suggest that there were no
differences in dietary patterns of these children with ADHD except for
the
intake of iron and vitamin C; however, the fatty acid composition of
phospholipid from RBC membranes in the ADHD children differed from that
of the
normal children.
PMID: 15302081 [PubMed - in process]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://tinyurl.com/aarx4
1: Med Hypotheses. 2005 Nov 29; [Epub ahead of print] Links
Anti-lactoferrin toxicity and elevated iron: The environmental
prerequisites which activate susceptibility to tuberculosis infection?
Purdey M.
High Barn Farm, Elworthy, Taunton, Somerset TA4 3PX, UK.
The maintenance and multiplication of Mycobacteria tuberculosis (TB)
and many other species of parasitic pathogen are dependent to varying,
largely unidentified degrees upon a source of free iron within the host
tissues. To combat these infections, the mammalian biosystem expresses
an iron binding exocrine protein, lactoferrin, which scavenges and
competes for free iron, thereby starving the parasite of its vital iron
supply. TB mycobacteria are naturally endemic in the external
environment, and once a latent, low level TB infection is established
within the host tissues, a full blown proliferation of the mycobacteria
population can be activated as soon as the levels of free iron are
elevated within the host tissues. The increase in iron can be induced
by several environmental and/or eco-genetic prerequisites that operate
either singly or in a synergistic combination; factors such as iron
rich water/foods, increased iron uptake/retention in the host tissues
or an environmental/genetic induced reduction in the turn over of iron
binding lactoferrin mediated immune defence against TB. Susceptibility
to the full blown proliferation of TB pathogenesis is markedly
increased as a result. This paper proposes that the recent dramatic
increase in the incidence of bovine/badger TB across the UK can be
correlated to the overall increase in acidification of the agricultural
ecosystem, which, in turn, has induced a substantial elevation of
soluble iron within the farm foodchain, thereby exacerbating
susceptibility to TB infection within any mammalian species that is
dependent upon these high iron ecosystems. The problem is further
compounded by the routine use of 'anti-lactoferrin' levamisole based
cattle wormers, which 'sensitise' the levamisole's target receptors,
thereby down regulating the secretion of the iron binding lactoferrin
molecule, which causes a reduction in the host's main line of defence
against TB infection.
PMID: 16324801 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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| ironjustice@aol.com 2006-02-25, 8:48 pm |
| PANDAS with catatonia: a case report. Therapeutic response to lorazepam
and plasmapheresis.
Elia J, Dell ML, Friedman DF, Zimmerman RA, Balamuth N, Ahmed AA, Pati
S
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2005 Nov ; 44(11): 1145-50
This is a report of an 11-year-old, prepubertal boy with acute-onset
urinary urgency and frequency, obsessions and compulsions related to
urination, severe mood lability, inattention, impulsivity,
hyperactivity, and intermittent periods of immobilization. Fever,
cough, otitis, and sinusitis preceded neuropsychiatric symptoms.
Antistreptolysin O and DNAse B antibody titers were elevated, and
magnetic resonance imaging revealed bilateral diffuse caudate nuclei
swelling. Plasmapheresis resulted in significant and rapid clinical
improvement of obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms and a
simultaneous decrease in basal ganglia swelling, consistent with an
immune-mediated pathophysiological process involving group A
beta-hemolytic streptococci. Hyperactivity, impulsivity, and
inattention improved with lorazepam, suggesting that the
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms could be
manifestations of catatonia.
Who loves ya.
Tom
Jesus Was A Vegetarian!
http://jesuswasavegetarian.7h.com
Man Is A Herbivore!
http://pages.ivillage.com/ironjustice/manisaherbivore
DEAD PEOPLE WALKING
http://pages.ivillage.com/ironjustice/deadpeoplewalking
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| robotripper@hotmail.com 2006-02-25, 8:48 pm |
| Is it just me or was all that completly incoherent. Your obsession with
iron is completly insane.
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| robotripper@hotmail.com 2006-02-25, 8:48 pm |
| Arent you the troll that blames everything on iron overload? aka tom
hennessy, watchman, doe. Your also active in trolling many other news
groups.
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