Obsessive Compulsive Disorders

Nearly every square inch of the rug in Patricia Edwards' living room and virtually every surface--chairs, coffee table, love seat, piano--is covered with heaps of stuff. There are so many piles of junk mail, sheets of crumpled wrapping paper, 5-year-old newspapers still in their plastic sleeves, broken electric toothbrushes, stained brown grocery bags, yellowing receipts, old shopping lists--that it's hard to open the front door that overlooks a tree-lined side street in Bethesda, Md.

Brody Kennedy was a typical sixth-grader who loved to hang out with friends in Castaic and play video games. A strep-throat infection in October caused him to miss a couple of days of school, but he was eager to rejoin his classmates, recalls his mother, Tracy. Then, a week after Brody became ill, he awoke one morning to find his world was no longer safe. Paranoid about germs and obsessed with cleanliness, he refused to touch things and showered several times a day. His fear prevented him from attending school, and he insisted on wearing nothing but a sheet or demanding that his mother microwave his clothes or heat them in the dryer before dressing.

Who can forget Felix Unger, that self-confessed fussbudget in "The Odd Couple," fretting over the cigarette butts in Oscar's ashtrays, his footprints in the kitchen, his slamming and banging that ruined the souffles? Felix was so fastidious that when he had finished polishing all the shoes in the house, he started shining the shoe trees as well.

Three years ago, global markets were plunged into chaos when Lehman Bros. collapsed at the height of the financial crisis. Jared Dillian, an ex-trader at the firm, is just happy to have gotten out alive — literally. Dillian's seven years as a Wall Street trader came to an end when the 158-year-old firm was dramatically pushed into bankruptcy Sept. 15, 2008. He'll mark the anniversary as a rare second chance in life after the high-pressure job turned him into a sort of voodoo doll on which the financial industry's wounds were visible.

Lessell Jackson sees it but sometimes can't believe it. "There's wild hoarding every day, all the time," says the marketing manager of Pace Warehouse in Woodland Hills. "People just can't seem to stop themselves." When the price of motor oil was rising during the Gulf Crisis, a man bought a case, Jackson recalls. When the man heard on TV that the price was going up again, he returned with a truck and loaded 227 cases of oil.

NBA superstar Michael Jordan owed a San Diego businessman as much as $1.252 million in golf gambling losses before eventually agreeing to a negotiated settlement of $300,000, according to a soon-to-be-released book obtained Wednesday by The Times. Richard Esquinas, 38, former general manager of the San Diego Sports Arena, claims in his book, "Michael & Me: Our Gambling Addiction . . . My Cry For Help!"

Everyone lies. Some stretch the truth; others mince it. This is a story about people who blow it to smithereens. Shameless revisionists. Hard-core, in-your-bald-face liars. For these people, reality is reflexively rearranged into dirty packages of deceit. Psychiatrists say compulsive liars--one researcher estimates they account for up to 5% of the population--suffer from a personality disorder that leads them not just to tell lies but to try to live those lies as well.

U.S. and Japanese researchers said Thursday they had found a genetic mutation that causes obsessive-compulsive disorder and other mental illnesses and said some patients had a second mutation that made their conditions more severe. The finding, reported in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, could make it easier to discover treatments for the disorder, one of the top 10 leading causes of disability worldwide.

Same bald head, diamond earring. Same gold watch that could pay off a Beverly Hills mortgage for three months. H-e-e-r-e's Michael! Yes it was, Michael Jordan, back after 15 days of silence. He put away the Suns in Game 1 of the NBA finals Wednesday night with a typical performance--31 points, seven rebounds, five assists--and answered some questions, and the world was back to normal. Of course, there were a few questions he didn't address. Like his gambling adventure with Richard Esquinas.

Maybe the kindly shoe folks in Oregon should pitch in with the pro basketball folks in New York and buy Michael Jordan an island in international waters. Maybe they should hire Pete Dye to build a golf course. They could put down an airstrip and bring in a 747 full of two-bit hustlers. They could do this right now. They could call the island Jordania. Maybe they should cause a light to glow from around Jordan's head.

If you see groups of people walking around San Diego next weekend - July 29-31 - encouraging each other to reach into trash cans, it's all good. The exercise is part of the annual International Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Meeting. Manifestations of obsessive-compulsive disorder include fears of contamination, hoarding disorder and Tourette syndrome. Just over 1% of people have some form of OCD The conference is unusual because it combines presentations of new research data from scientists as well as educational forums for therapists, people with OCD and their family members.

Tiger Woods, who recently admitted to multiple extramarital affairs, said he is receiving treatment. David Duchovny, who plays a sex-obsessed professor on the TV show "Californication," underwent rehab in 2008. Dr. Drew Pinsky has launched a reality series dealing with the subject. Sex addiction talk seems to be everywhere. But mental health experts are split on what underlies such behavior. The American Psychiatric Assn. has proposed that out-of-control sexual appetites be included as a diagnosis in the next edition of the psychiatrists' bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, to be published in 2013.

For months, Dr. Nicholas Dodman, head of the animal behavior clinic at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, has been in doggie heaven. Using brand-new genetic "chip" technology developed by researchers at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, where the entire dog genome was sequenced a couple of years ago, Dodman is finally poised to do the experiments he's been waiting years to do -- exploring the genetics of complex psychiatric problems in dogs.

Mice born without a key brain protein developed obsessive-compulsive symptoms that went away when treated with anti-anxiety drugs, giving new clues about the brain mechanism behind the disorder, researchers reported Thursday in the journal Nature. They said mice that lacked the gene SAPAP3 -- which makes a protein that helps nerves communicate -- groomed their faces until they bled and developed an aversion for bright, open spaces. Fluoxetine, an anti-anxiety drug sold by Eli Lilly & Co.

Show me, Lord, where I can obtain help: and if I have to follow a little dog to obtain the cure I need, I am ready to do just that. A troubled Inigo de Loyola -- founder of the Jesuit order, a man whose unquestionably pure heart eventually earned him canonization as St. Ignatius Loyola -- wrote those words more than 450 years ago. Surprisingly, he was racked by fears of spiritual unworthiness, to the point of contemplating suicide.

Scientists say they have unearthed a clue to solving the mystery of obsessive-compulsive disorder -- the trait characterized with humor on the TV detective series "Monk." Now, researchers have demonstrated that each of the three behaviors associated with OCD -- hand-washing, checking and hoarding -- activates a different brain region. The study was published in the latest issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Mice born without a key brain protein developed obsessive-compulsive symptoms that went away when treated with anti-anxiety drugs, giving new clues about the brain mechanism behind the disorder, researchers reported Thursday in the journal Nature. They said mice that lacked the gene SAPAP3 -- which makes a protein that helps nerves communicate -- groomed their faces until they bled and developed an aversion for bright, open spaces. Fluoxetine, an anti-anxiety drug sold by Eli Lilly & Co.

U.S. and Japanese researchers said Thursday they had found a genetic mutation that causes obsessive-compulsive disorder and other mental illnesses and said some patients had a second mutation that made their conditions more severe. The finding, reported in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, could make it easier to discover treatments for the disorder, one of the top 10 leading causes of disability worldwide.

At some point in life, almost everyone develops an odd ritual: checking the mirror continually, brushing teeth four times in the morning, repeating a private prayer or mantra for good luck. In about two out of 100 cases, the habit spins out of control, becoming a full-blown compulsion, feeding on itself and consuming hours of each day. Most people afflicted are well aware that the rituals are excessive and irrational, but there's nothing they can do.