Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
- Explanations
- Neural
- Low levels of Serotonin
- leads to impaired transmission of mood-relevant info
- leads to a lower mood
- linked with
obsessive
thoughts
- Abnormal frontal lobe functioning
- leads to impaired decision-making,
thus leading to symptoms of OCD,
e.g. like hoarding systems
- Abnormal functioning of the left
parahippocampal gyrus
- leads to more
processing of
unpleasant
emotions, which is
a feature of OCD
- studies show that increasing serotonin levels
decreases OCD symptoms using antidepressants
- there is a lack of understanding
what neural mechanisms are
involved, making this an
incomplete explanation
- No cause-effect relationships have been
established - could be the brain changing
as a result of OCD. (symptom of a cause)
- Genetic
- OCD is Polygenic
- found up to 230
genes that could
be involved in
OCD
- thus finding a
definitive genetic
cause is very unlikely,
thus reducing the
usefulness of this
explanation
- Candidate genes
- HT1D-beta
- terminal
serotonin
autoreceptor
- genes create vulnerability to OCD
- Lewis - 37% of OCD
patients had parents
with the disorder
- Diathesis-stress model
- As well as this genetic
vulnerability, the environment
may trigger OCD
- Cromer - OCD patients who
had experienced traumatic
events in their lives had
more severe OCD symptoms
- Treatments
- Tricyclics
- work the same as SSRI's
- prescribed when SSRI's
no longer work on
patient
- have more side effects
- e.g. weight gain,
aggression etc
- makes patients not want to
take them, thus symptoms
return
- SSRIs
- block the transporter mechanism that
reabsorbs serotonin into the
presynaptic membrane after it has fired.
- so serotonin is left to be absorbed
by the postsynaptic membrane
- takes 3-4 months for
benefits to show
- dosages vary with every patient
- can be combined with CBT
- Soomro - SSRIs group were significantly better than placebo
controls in reducing OCD symptoms
- easy and non-disruptive compared to CBT
- suits every persons individual lifestyles