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# Gene Linked to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/gene_linked_to_obessive_compulsive_disorder_2705100354/
- Published: 2010-05-27T16:48:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:07:11.000Z
- Description: A team led by Mario Capecchi cured mice of compulsive hair-pulling with bone marrow transplants, and produced the symptoms by transplanting in reverse, tracing the behaviour to the bone-marrow gene Hoxb8. The Cell paper points to a causal link between the immune system and psychiatric illness.
- Author: Rachel Stockton
- Tags: Miscellaneous, Health News, #vivvo-import

Several decades ago, John A. Schindler penned a book called “How to Live 365 Days a Year;” it is still in publication today. Schindler first introduced the concept of “emotionally induced illness” to the mainstream public. The premise of the book is that many illnesses are due to how we think; the greater the psychological pain people suffer, the greater the chance for bodily illness. At the time, no such correlation had been recognized.

Published in this month’s issue of the journal Cell, the results of a new study could easily be as equally groundbreaking. New research has determined a causal link between the immune system and some psychiatric illnesses. Although scientists have recognized a link between the two for some time, a cause-and-effect relationship had not been determined – until now, that is.

For the study, Mario Capecchi, recipient of the 2007 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine, led a team of researchers who treated mice suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, by giving them a bone marrow transplant.

The mice in the clinical trial had “hair pulling disorder”, which mimics trichotillomania in humans; the disorder is marked by incessant hair pulling from the body.

Within three months of the transplant, the mice had been cured and all of the hair grew back. When tried in reverse, the mice began to immediately display disorder symptoms.

The disorder was traced back to abnormalities in a gene called Hoxb8\. This was a surprise to the researchers, as Hoxb8, which originates in the bone marrow, is responsible for repairing damages in the brain.

 The effect of the immune system has been tied to several mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder and clinical depression. This explains why a person suffering from depression often falls ill more quickly than those who don’t have it.

Obviously, bone marrow transplants aren’t practical, especially since OCD patients fare well with psychotherapy. However, the results of the study may clear up some of the fog surrounding mental illness by giving it an explanation. 

Mario Capecchi is a professor of genetics and human biology at the University of Utah.