TY - JOUR
T1 - An olfactory-limbic model of multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome
T2 - Possible relationships to kindling and affective spectrum disorders
AU - Bell, Iris R.
AU - Miller, Claudia S.
AU - Schwartz, Gary E.
N1 - Funding Information:
From the Department of Psychiatry, University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, Arizona dRB); Department of Family Practice (Environmental Medicine Division), University of Texas Health Science Center, San Aptonio, Texas (CSM); and Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona (GES). This research (CSM) was supported in part by an appointment to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Clinical Fellowship Program in Environmental Medicine, administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities through an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and ATSDR, Address reprint requests to Dr. Iris Bell at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, AZ 85724. Received lanuary 1, 1992; revised March 14, 1992. Presented in part at the 119th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, Atlanta, Georgia, November 1~-14, 1991.
PY - 1992/8/1
Y1 - 1992/8/1
N2 - This paper reviews the clinical and experimental literature on patients with multiple adverse responses to chemicals (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome-MCS) and develops a model for MCS based on olfactory-limbic system dysfunction that overlaps in part with Post's kindling model for affective disorders. MCS encompasses a broad range of chronic polysymptomatic conditions and complaints whose triggers are reported to include low levels of common indoor and outdoor environmental chemicals, such as pesticides and solvents. Other investigators have found evidence of increased prevalence of depression, anxiety, and somatization disorders in MCS patients and have concluded that their psychiatric conditions account for the clinical picture. However, none of these studies has presented any data on the effects of chemicals on symptoms or on objective measures of nervous system function. Synthesis of the MCS literature with large bodies of research in neurotoxicology, occupational medicine, and biological psychiatry, suggests that the phenomenology of MCS patients overlaps that of affective spectrum disorders and that both involve dysfunction of the limbic pathways. Animal studies demonstrate that intermittent repeated low level environmental chemical exposures, including pesticides, cause limbic kindling. Kindling (full or partial) is one central nervous system mechanism that could amplify reactivity to low levels of inhaled and ingested chemical and initiate persistent affective, cognitive, and somatic symptomatology in both occupational and nonoccupational settings. As in animal studies, inescapable and novel stressors could cross-sensitive with chemical exposures in some individuals to generate adverse responses on a neurochemical basis. The olfactory-limbic model raises testable neurobiological hypotheses that could increase understanding of the multifactorial etiology of MCS and of certain overlapping affective spectrum disorders.
AB - This paper reviews the clinical and experimental literature on patients with multiple adverse responses to chemicals (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome-MCS) and develops a model for MCS based on olfactory-limbic system dysfunction that overlaps in part with Post's kindling model for affective disorders. MCS encompasses a broad range of chronic polysymptomatic conditions and complaints whose triggers are reported to include low levels of common indoor and outdoor environmental chemicals, such as pesticides and solvents. Other investigators have found evidence of increased prevalence of depression, anxiety, and somatization disorders in MCS patients and have concluded that their psychiatric conditions account for the clinical picture. However, none of these studies has presented any data on the effects of chemicals on symptoms or on objective measures of nervous system function. Synthesis of the MCS literature with large bodies of research in neurotoxicology, occupational medicine, and biological psychiatry, suggests that the phenomenology of MCS patients overlaps that of affective spectrum disorders and that both involve dysfunction of the limbic pathways. Animal studies demonstrate that intermittent repeated low level environmental chemical exposures, including pesticides, cause limbic kindling. Kindling (full or partial) is one central nervous system mechanism that could amplify reactivity to low levels of inhaled and ingested chemical and initiate persistent affective, cognitive, and somatic symptomatology in both occupational and nonoccupational settings. As in animal studies, inescapable and novel stressors could cross-sensitive with chemical exposures in some individuals to generate adverse responses on a neurochemical basis. The olfactory-limbic model raises testable neurobiological hypotheses that could increase understanding of the multifactorial etiology of MCS and of certain overlapping affective spectrum disorders.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/0026494920
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0026494920&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/0006-3223(92)90105-9
DO - 10.1016/0006-3223(92)90105-9
M3 - Article
C2 - 1420641
AN - SCOPUS:0026494920
SN - 0006-3223
VL - 32
SP - 218
EP - 242
JO - Biological Psychiatry
JF - Biological Psychiatry
IS - 3
ER -