The OCD Brain: how animal research helps us understand a devastating condition

28 March 2017

OCD can be a devastating condition: therapy and medication often doesn’t work, leaving many people unable to hold down a job or a relationship – or even to leave their house. In our series of films, science writer David Adam looks at how research at Cambridge using animals helps us understand what is happening in the brain – and may lead to better treatments.

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Grobidon

Infections during pregnancy may interfere with key genes associated with autism and prenatal brain development

21 March 2017

If a mother picks up an infection during pregnancy, her immune system will kick into action to clear the infection – but this self-defence mechanism may also have a small influence how her child’s brain develops in the womb, in ways that are similar to how the brain develops in autism spectrum disorders. Now, an international team of researchers has shown why this may be the case, in a study using rodents to model infection during pregnancy.

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Owen in the Abandoned House

Opinion: New ways to treat depression in teenagers

08 March 2017

Prime Minister Theresa May recently announced measures to improve mental health support at every stage of a person’s life, with an emphasis on early intervention for children and young people. Writing in The Conversation, Professor Ian Goodyer from the Department of Psychiatry looks at the options for helping teenagers.

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