
Psychiatric
Research
Immunological Causes of Obsessive-compulsive Disorder: Is it Time for the Concept of an “Autoimmune OCD” subtype?

A conceptual review of considering frequent primary OCD and secondary rare organic forms of OCD with a structured clinical approach. Autoimmune OCDs red flag signs for “autoimmune OCD” could include (sub)acute onset, unusual age of onset, atypical presentation of OCS with neuropsychiatric features (e.g., disproportionate cognitive deficits) or accompanying neurological symptoms (e.g., movement disorders), autonomic dysfunction, treatment resistance, associations of symptom onset with infections, comorbid autoimmune diseases or malignancies.