People with atopic dermatitis (AD) may be up to three times as likely to develop obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), according to a research letter published in the December 2023 issue of the Archives of Dematological Research.
When Yale School of Medicine researchers examined data from more than 214,000 participants in the All of Us Research Program, they found that people with AD were at 2.87-fold increased risk for OCD when compared to matched controls.
What’s the possible connection? Researchers suggest that the systemic inflammation caused by AD may accelerate brain inflammation that could contribute to OCD.
“We are increasingly learning that AD is a skin condition that involves inflammation in the entire body,” says study author Jeffrey Cohen, MD, assistant professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., in a news release. “This can make people with atopic dermatitis more likely to develop other medical conditions.”
Behavioral factors may also play a role as chronic itch caused by AD could lead to repetitive or obsessive behaviors, while the compulsive hand washing seen in OCD could exacerbate AD, the authors speculate.
