For millennia, man has asked what makes us do what we do, reaching a multitude of answers, some on target and some not. Ultimately, we are driven both by physical and spiritual factors. This particular study indicates that inflammation is one of the physical factors contributing to compulsions. Sidestepping those who want to pigeonhole our behaviors into a single category, this study indicates that some prior assumptions about compulsions were wrong and helps us better understand how brain cell inflammation creates repetitive compulsive behaviors in children and adults.
While habits such as brushing our teeth without having to consciously think about doing so are helpful, compulsions tend towards the repetition of harmful behaviors, behaviors repeated despite the harm they cause. At the extreme of compulsive behavior, some individuals from all ages suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder. Sufferers of this condition experience intense drives to repeat certain behaviors such as hand washing, checking for locked doors, repeating actions to prevent some type of feared harm, and much more. These behaviors can range in intensity from annoying to disruptive or disabling.
Such disabling situations are often seen in children who suffer from Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS) or Pediatric Autoimmune Disorder Associated with Strep (PANDAS). In these sister conditions, some infection or toxin triggers an immune reaction that then cross-reacts with various brain areas, inflaming cells and regions. Outwardly, the children can develop OCD pathology overnight or over days to weeks. Unaddressed, the children may suffer disabling OCD for months to years, though they sometimes self-resolve in days to weeks.
Earlier hypotheses suggested that such ‘bad habits’ of OCD or simple compulsions were the results of a brain stuck on autopilot, with no the person thinking to process the decision. This model makes sense for habits: the brain autopilots so that the person can focus on something else while they walk down the road or finish brushing their teeth. In this research at the University of Sydney, not only were they able to connect inflammation in the striatal area of brain with the rat’s behavioral changes, but they determined that it was not a brain stuck on autopilot. Instead, the brain region actually increased the deliberateness in decision-making.
By directly causing inflammation in specific areas of rat brains, they could watch for changes in behavior and then look at those brain regions on autopsy of the rats for changes. It looked like astrocytes, a type of support cell for nerve cells, multiplied in response to the inflammation and disrupted decision-making areas of the rat brains.
This research is not surprising for those of us caring for children with PANS and PANDAS. By identifying the infectious or toxic trigger and removing it (simultaneous with putting out the inflammatory fires), we see these compulsive behaviors and many other neuropsychiatric symptoms fade and resolve (depression, panic attacks, rage fits, insomnia, nightmares, and more). Helping these families restore healthier, more abundant lives to their precious children is a joy and blessing when we can apply clear science like this research to the children sitting across from us in the clinic.
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Thanks to Science Daily:
University of Technology Sydney. “Brain inflammation may be driving compulsive behavior.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 February 2026. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260215225606.htm>.c
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
Dr. Eric Potter graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School and then went on to specialize in internal medicine (adult) and pediatric care, spending significant time and effort in growing his medical understanding while caring for patients from all walks of life.
