強迫癥原來都是基因惹的鍋

Do you often feel like you want to wash your hands again and again? Or do you ever have the urge to line up the items on your desk? These all may be symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, which affects about 2 percent of the world’s population.

你常想一遍又一遍地洗手嗎?或者你是否曾有想要把桌上物品整理好沖動?這些或許都是強迫癥的癥狀，全球2%的人口受此影響。

Those who suffer from OCD have difficulty finding successful treatment because doctors don’t clearly understand its causes. But now, a new study has given hope for a future cure.

這些飽受強迫癥困擾的人很難得到有效的治療，因為醫(yī)生也無法明確病因。而如今，一項新研究帶來了未來治愈強迫癥的希望。

For the study, which was published in the journal Nature in October, researchers observed humans, dogs and mice. They discovered four genes that may be responsible for obsessive-compulsive behaviors in humans.

在《自然》期刊10月發(fā)布的這項研究中，研究人員對人類、狗以及老鼠進行了觀察。他們發(fā)現四種基因或許是人類強迫癥行為的癥結所在。

But why observe dogs and mice to learn about humans?

但研究人類為什么還要觀察狗和老鼠呢?

“Dogs, it turns out, are surprisingly similar to people,” study author and geneticist Elinor Karlsson, of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, US, told NPR. “They’re chasing their own tail or chasing shadows like normal, but they’re doing it for hours.”

“事實證明，狗和人類有著驚人的相似性，”該研究作者、來自美國哈佛大學-麻省理工學院布羅德研究所的遺傳學家Elinor Karlsson在接受美國全國公共廣播電臺采訪時表示。“有的狗像正常的狗一樣追著自己的尾巴或者影子跑，但一跑就是幾個小時。”

In the study, researchers made a list of about 600 genes in mice, dogs and humans that they thought might cause OCD, reported NPR. They then compared those genes in two large groups of people – those who don’t have OCD and those who do. In the end, they identified just four genes with mutations in the OCD group. The genes are active in a neurological pathway in the brain, which is believed to help control actions. But the mutations could block the neurological pathway.

據美國全國公共廣播電臺報道，在研究中，研究人員認為共有600種老鼠、狗以及人類的基因會導致強迫癥，并據此制作了一張基因列表。他們將這些基因與兩大組人群(有強迫癥的人和沒有強迫癥的人)進行比對。結果發(fā)現只有四種基因在患有強迫癥的人群中發(fā)生了突變。這些被認為有助于控制行為的基因在大腦的神經通路中相當活躍。但突變或許會阻斷神經通路。

For example, for people without OCD, when they finish washing their hands, a signal will come, telling them to stop. But for people with OCD, the neurological pathway is blocked, so the message isn’t getting through. As a result, the person will continue to wash their hands.

比如，沒有強迫癥的人洗完手后會收到一個信號，告訴他們可以停下了。但強迫癥患者的神經通路卻被阻斷了，所以這一信息無法傳達。結果就是他們會去不斷地洗手。

“OCD and anxiety are kind of like learning disorders,” Marcos Grados, an OCD researcher at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told NPR. “Often with OCD, people have a fear of germs. You can’t touch tables or door knobs and every time it’s the same sensation. You didn’t learn that the last time you touched a door knob, nothing happened. It’s like touching it for the first time ever.”

“強迫癥和焦慮癥類似于閱讀障礙癥，”約翰斯·霍普金斯大學醫(yī)學院的強迫癥研究員Marcos Grados在接受美國全國公共廣播電臺采訪時表示。“有強迫癥的人往往都會害怕細菌。他們不敢碰桌面或者門把手，每次觸碰都會產生同種異樣的感覺。他們無法想起上次觸碰門把手安然無事的經歷，永遠都像是第一次的體驗。”

However, that doesn’t mean people who have these genetic mutations will always have obsessive-compulsive behaviors, the researchers said. That’s because the disorder also relies on other things, such as one’s environment.

然而，研究人員表示，這并不意味著帶有這些基因突變的人就會有強迫癥的行為。因為強迫癥還受制于環(huán)境等其他因素。

According to reports, various existing treatment methods have low success rates in patients. But now that we know where OCD comes from, let’s hope we will soon find an effective way to treat it.

報告表明，現有的各種治療方式對于強迫癥患者都奏效甚微。但如今我們知道了強迫癥的癥結所在，希望很快就能找到治療強迫癥的有效方法。