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Neuroscience

Obsessed with grooming

Nature volume 448, pages 871–872 (2007)Cite this article

Roughly 2% of humans suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder, but a lack of animal models has impeded research into this condition. Could a genetically engineered mouse model provide an exciting lead?

Often beginning early in life and running a chronic and relapsing course, OCD causes significant distress and disability. The available treatments for this condition are only moderately effective. They include cognitive behavioural psychotherapies and antidepressant drugs that increase levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin at synapses (junctions between neurons). As is often the case in psychiatric disorders, the existing drugs for OCD stem from exploitation of serendipitous clinical observations. Neither the pathophysiology of the disorder nor the mechanism of action of these drugs is understood.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Steven E. Hyman is in the Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts Hall, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. seh@harvard.edu,

    Steven E. Hyman

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  1. Steven E. Hyman
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Hyman, S. Obsessed with grooming. Nature 448, 871–872 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/448871a

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