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Anxiety disorder - can 23andme results guide treatment strategy?

Messages
29
Hi all, I'm new here (hello!) and am so glad to find a place with so many people that are knowledgeable about genetic testing, results, treatment protocol, etc. I have been dealing with an anxiety disorder (pure-O form of OCD; unrelenting anxiety) for about 13 years now. I received results back from 23andme (ran through geneticgenie.org), and am curious if any of the results below might explain the unrelenting anxiety I experience. I know there's no simple explanation for this disorder, but I'm just looking for possible clues here. If there are clues within my test results, how might my genetic test results impact treatment strategy? Curious to hear your thoughts! :)



Homozygous mutations as indicated in your SNP gene table:
  • VDR Bsm
  • BHMT-02
  • BHMT-04
  • CBS A360A
Heterozygous mutations as indicated in your SNP gene table:
  • MTHFR 03 P39P
  • MTHFR A1298C
  • MAO-A R297R
  • MTRR A66G
  • MTRR R415T
  • BHMT-08
 

vamah

Senior Member
Messages
593
Location
Washington , DC area
I don't know.any answers to.your specific question, but I am interested in your situation since my first symptom was sudden onset anxiety ( diagnosed as pure obesessive type of OCD). I read an article not long ago by a doctor who had several patients with sudden onset anxiety who turned out to have lyme disease. Have you ever been tested for lyme?
 
Messages
29
Hi vamah, nice to meet u - sorry to hear ur dealing with the same thing. Hopefully we'll get some insight here. :)

No, never tested for lyme - how about you? What prompts one to test for that (besides having a tick, etc.)? Are there other ways to get it?
 

vamah

Senior Member
Messages
593
Location
Washington , DC area
Actually, it was that article I mentioned that prompted me to test. I got a very expensive test from a specialty lab that turned out negative. There are a lot of false negatives with lyme tests, but the test I got is considered one of the most accurate, so I can be pretty sure I don't have lyme. I have found ticks a couple times, but think I removed them in time -- never had a rash, etc.

My anxiety is pretty well controled with psychiatric drugs right now, but I don't really want to take them forever. Hopefully, I can treat the underlying cause.
 
Messages
29
Glad to hear u didn't have lyme, and also that ur anxiety is under control atm. I understand about not wanting to be on psych meds, but it is what it is. I don't want to rely on rx either, but I more so want to feel better. So I'll do what I have to do. :)

Did u test thru 23andme? Curious to compare results as we both deal with pure-o.
 
Messages
29
Valentijn - any chance you would be willing to comment on my results/question? Any post I've come across where you've provided input makes me hopeful that you'll provide input on mine too. :)
 
Messages
15,786
Homozygous mutations as indicated in your SNP gene table:
  • VDR Bsm
  • BHMT-02
  • BHMT-04
  • CBS A360A
Heterozygous mutations as indicated in your SNP gene table:
  • MTHFR 03 P39P
  • MTHFR A1298C
  • MAO-A R297R
  • MTRR A66G
  • MTRR R415T
  • BHMT-08
I've crossed out the SNPs where there's no research showing that they have any impact at all.

Basically you don't have any obvious methylation problems. Folate or B12 might be a tiny bit slow, and a bit of B6 might help, but you'd probably get enough of that from a healthy diet or a typical multi-vitamin or B-complex with the active forms.

VDR, COMT, and MAOA are relevant to the neurotransmitters which can be involved in anxiety and such. I have bigger lists of VDR and COMT SNPs known to have an impact at:
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/interesting-vdr-variations.24480/
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/interesting-comt-variations.24672/
You can manually search for those SNPs and your results in your 23andMe download.

If additional testing is an option, neurotransmitter levels would be a great place to start. I do plan to get my automated program to look at those sorts of genes in more depth at some point, but that's probably going to take a while.

If you want to look for rare SNPs you have which might be causing your problems, I have a program that will pull out rare results at http://sourceforge.net/projects/analyzemygenes/ (info on how to use it is on the wiki there). There's an additional ten_percent file at http://sourceforge.net/projects/analyzemygenes/files/Databases/ which can be used with the original download to get a much bigger list, then sort out homozygous results which are far more likely to be relevant.
 
Messages
29
Valentijn u r awesome. Thank you so much. I'd like to think i can interpret this on my own, but I start to second guess myself, esp when I find contradictory information re. supplementation (i.e., do I take b6 or not?, etc.). Good to have ur input!

I did look at your program on SF, but am unable to run it (problem with my java vs, i believe) - would love to check it out once I get that figured out. Also would love to alpha/beta test your automated program re. neutrotransmitter/genes - I'm techie too, but the genetic speak is still way over my head! So, I will stick to helping out with what I actually understand for now. ;-)
 
Messages
15,786
I did look at your program on SF, but am unable to run it (problem with my java vs, i believe) - would love to check it out once I get that figured out. Also would love to alpha/beta test your automated program re. neutrotransmitter/genes - I'm techie too, but the genetic speak is still way over my head! So, I will stick to helping out with what I actually understand for now. ;-)
Yeah, it might work with a more updated version of Java. If not, lemme know what's going wrong and we can try to fix it. The last update to the analyzer program was a few weeks ago.
 

vamah

Senior Member
Messages
593
Location
Washington , DC area
Glad to hear u didn't have lyme, and also that ur anxiety is under control atm. I understand about not wanting to be on psych meds, but it is what it is. I don't want to rely on rx either, but I more so want to feel better. So I'll do what I have to do. :)

Did u test thru 23andme? Curious to compare results as we both deal with pure-o.


No, haven't had 23 & me test. I think it is one of those things that my brain just can't wrap itself around in the state it is in right now. Methylation is another. Have tried to understand it, but just too much.

The one thing I have tested positive for is HHV-6. Am taking valcyte for that now.
 

musicchick581

Senior Member
Messages
115
@kakrpa I have the same kind of OCD/anxiety issues and panic disorder. What have you done to treat it since 2013, your last post? What has worked?