ArticleClinical neuropsychiatry2024
Silent Infections are not So Silent: The Emerging Role of Combined Infections, Inflammation, and Vitamin Levels in OCD.
Article in Clinical neuropsychiatry, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 3 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review on Insomnia and Circadian Rhythms Desynchronization in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: From Childhood to Adulthood.Journal of sleep research · 2026Pooled it
- Editorial: Severe mental illnesses in children: unravelling developmental trajectories, neuropsychiatric impairments, and chronic pain.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- The role of previous streptococcal infections in adult patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: a research study.CNS spectrums · 2025Article
- Third-Generation Antipsychotics: The Quest for the Key to Neurotrophism.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Love is expensive: the impact of initiating versus terminating romantic relationships on the onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder.CNS spectrums · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: Recent evidence highlights that different agents may trigger immune-mediated processes involved in the pathophysiology of different neuropsychiatric conditions. Given the limited information on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the present study aimed at assessing current/past infections and plasma levels of vitamin D, vitamin B12, folic acid, homocysteine and common peripheral inflammatory markers in a group of OCD outpatients. Method: The sample included 217 adult outpatients with an OCD diagnosis according to the DSM-5 criteria. The Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) was used to assess the clinical phenotype and symptom severity. Laboratory blood tests measured levels of vitamin D, vitamin B12, folic acid, homocysteine, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), blood count and antibodies titers for cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein Barr virus (EBV), Toxoplasma gondii and antistreptolysin titer. Results: Sixty-one patients had a previous EBV infection, 46 were seropositive for CMV IgG, 24 showed positive antistreptolysin titer, 14 were seropositive for Toxoplasma gondii IgG, and four for CMV IgM. More than a half of patients showed vitamin D insufficiency. Compared to seronegative patients, patients with a past EBV infection displayed significantly higher scores on the Y-BOCS total score and compulsion subscale, and other symptoms. Vitamin D was negatively correlated with both the Y-BOCS total score and the subscales scores. Folic acid was negatively correlated with the Y-BOCS total and obsessions subscale score. Conclusions: The findings of our study show an association between Epstein-Barr infection and hypovitaminosis D and the overall severity and specific symptom patterns of OCD. The laboratory measures used in this study are useful, cheap and easy parameters that should be routinely assessed in patients with OCD. Further studies are needed to clarify their role in OCD pathophysiology and outcomes, as well as the potential therapeutic impact of vitamins and antibiotics/immunomodulatory agents in OCD and other psychiatric conditions.
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