Is it possible some people develop obsessive compulsive disorders after they've had a strep throat infection? Utah researchers are joining others across the country, hoping to find out. Science Specialist Ed Yeates has the story.

In the fourth grade, Sheila Christensen had a series of strep throat infections.

((ED YEATES, SCIENCE SPECIALIST: "SHE RECOVERED, BUT BACK IN SCHOOL - DEVELOPED AN OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER - IN HER CASE - TO CONTINUALLY WASH HER HANDS."))

((SHEILA CHRISTENSEN: "SOMETIMES I WOULD BE RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF PLAYING TETHER BALL OR VOLLEYBALL, AND JUST FEEL THE URGE TO DART OFF THE PLAYGROUND AND GO WASH MY HANDS."))

Sheila's brother who was two years younger also had a strep throat. He too later developed another form of O-C-D.

(("MAKING EVERYTHING EXTREMELY ORDERLY IN HIS SURROUNDINGS. NOTHING COULD BE OUT OF PLACE."))

Was there a connection? That's what University of Utah and Primary Children's researchers want to know. And they'll join others with the same question at a meeting with the National Institute of Mental Health in December. Psychiatrist Dr William McMahon says if there is a link, it may trigger other problems too like Tourette's Syndrome which produces facial and bodily tics.

((WILLIAM MCMAHON M.D., PSCYHIATRIST, PRIMARY CHILDREN'S MEDICAL CENTER: "THE USUAL CASE IS SOMEONE WHO HAS HAD A MILD SORT OF TOURETTE'S SYNDROME OR TICS OR OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER THAT IS TRANSIENT, THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN, IT GETS HORRIBLY WORSE."))

Neither Sheila nor her brother had any prior symptoms of O-C-D, or panic attacks prior to the strep infection. So like strep triggers Rheumatic Fever in some people, in others it may trigger things like anxiety, OCD, panic attacks or Tourette's Syndrome.

If there is a link, it involves a specific strain of streptococcus bacteria, and would only trigger a response in some people. In those individuals, an overactive immune system may damage mechanisms in the brain causing O-C-D. But a lot more studies are needed to confirm such a link. Ed Yeates, KSL News, SLC.