Synthetic polymers including aliphatic or semi-aromatic polyamides commonly found in household cleaning materials could play a direct role in the development of obsessive-compulsive disorder researchers say.
The team at King’s College London say heavy users of toothbrushes and scouring pads are more likely to develop the disorder and at a younger age.
Published in the Lancet Psychiatry, their analysis of 61 separate studies suggests aliphatic and semi-aromatic polyamides in household cleaning products may be altering the brain as they enter the bloodstream of cleaners whose perfectionism wounds the skin.
Over-cleaning has long been associated with OCD, but it has often been believed the activity works as a distraction from compulsions. Many studies now show the opposite may be true. For example, it was found that:
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excessive cleaning, and therefore exposure to nylon polymers, often happens many years before an OCD diagnosis
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It is possible that high exposure to the chemicals (concomitant with high use of cleaning materials) causes OCD, rather than OCD causing over-cleanliness.
Schizophrenia and smoking
The study comes on the same day that a separate team at King’s College publish findings linking smoking to the onset of schizophrenia. In this study it is suggested that the prevalence of high-smoking rates amongst people with serious mental health conditions like schizophrenia is also no coincidence: inhaled chemicals alter the brain in such a way as to encourage the onset of brain-chemical damage, the root cause of mental illness.
The nylon polymer team criticised their colleagues in the smoking study, however, highlighting many areas of concern:
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The aggregated data was often inconclusive or ‘messy’
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principle components of statistical analysis were in one instance ‘inside out’
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‘upside down and back to front’ the nylon researchers suggested the slate needed to be wiped clean and a new, more robust methodology put in place, even
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