Detroit Researcher to Discuss OCD on ABC's Primetime

A Children's Hospital of Michigan psychiatrist and researcher at Wayne State University in Detroit, Dr. David Rosenberg, will appear tonight on ABC's "Primetime" at 10 p.m. to discuss the role of glutamate in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). According to an article in the Detroit Free Press, "WSU prof ties chemical to obsessive compulsive disorder", 8/4/09, an imbalance of glutamate might explain OCD.

The discovery in Dearborn, Michigan, that a man with OCD was keeping more than 100 Chihuahuas in filthy and inhumane conditions, has brought the issue to light recently. The behavior the man exhibited was probably an extreme form of the disorder called hoarding.

The article also refers to another extreme case in a local nursing student whose fear of choking prevented her from eating since the age of 10. She has since been successfully treated for her OCD.

According to the Free Press article:

Rosenberg said glutamate keeps the fear center of the brain on high alert, even when there is nothing to be afraid of. “When you check the door to make sure it’s locked,” the fear center “gives you the all clear, the door is locked, and you go to sleep. In children with OCD, you never get that signal, and in fact the fear cen­ter warns the danger is worse than before,” Rosenberg said. OCD sufferers are haunted by anxieties that never go away...

Treatments are available for the disorder.