Researchers Link Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior And Obesity
An experiment to probe brain circuits involved in compulsive behavior - where mice were bred missing a gene suspected to be involved in compulsive behavior and obesity - resulted in offspring mice that were neither compulsive groomers nor obese. Their Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) paper suggests that the brain circuits that control obsessive-compulsive behavior are intertwined with circuits that control food intake and body weight. University of Iowa psychiatrists Michael Lutter, M.D., Ph.D. and Andrew Pieper, M.D., Ph.D., led the study, which included researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Harvard Medical School. read more