OCD

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What type of disorder is OCD?

What type of disorder is OCD?

Anxiety disorder

What is OCD?

Where sufferers experience persistent and intrusive thoughts occurring as obsessions and/or compulsions. Most realise their behaviour is excessive but cannot consciously control them.

Occurs in about 2% of people.

What are obsessions?

Inappropriate ideas/visual images that aren’t based on reality and lead to anxiety.

What are compulsions?

Intense, uncontrollable urges to repetitively perform tasks/behaviours as an attempt to reduce distress or prevent a feared event.

What are behavioural symptoms of obsessions?

Hinder everyday functioning

Social impairment

What are emotional symptoms of obsessions?

Extreme anxiety

What are cognitive symptoms of obsessions?

Recurrent and persistent thoughts

Recognised as self-generated

Realisation of inappropriateness

Attentional bias

What are examples of common obsessions?

Contamination e.g. germs

Fear of losing control e.g. hurting others

Perfectionism

Religion e.g. fear of being immoral

What are behavioural symptoms of compulsions?

Repetitive

Hinder everyday functioning

Sexual impairment

What are emotional symptoms of compulsions?

Distress

What are cognitive symptoms of compulsions?

Uncontrollable urges

Realisation of inappropriateness

What are examples of common compulsions?

Excessive washing or cleaning

Excessive checking e.g. ovens, locks, lights

Repetition e.g. bodily movements

Mental compulsions e.g. praying

Hoarding

What is the genetic explanation of OCD?

Inherited through genetic transmission based ib twin studies. It is most likely a combination of genes that increase susceptibility to OCD rather than just one gene and there must be some environmental influences.

What is the neural explanation of OCD?

PET scans show low levels of serotonin activity in OCD patients, suggesting neurotransmitter disfunction may be involved in the disorder.

PET scans also show high orbital frontal cortex activity (area associated with high-level thought process), in a non-sufferer when they have an impulse and it is fulfilled the impulse lessens whereas in sufferers the brain fails to lessen the impulse so it then becomes an obsession to try and fulfil the brains impulse.

What are strengths of the neural explanation of OCD?

There are links between the neural and genetic explanations of neural mechanisms where DNA samples show sufferers lack the Serotonin Transporter gene (SERT) which causes low levels of serotonin.

What are limitations of the neural explanation of OCD?

Not established what are abnormal serotonin levels / frontal orbital cortex activity

Unknown the precise mechanisms of OCD

Not all sufferers responds to serotonin enhancing drug therapies

What are biological treatments of OCD?

Drug treatments are most common to correct biological abnormalities.

How do drugs treat OCD?

Antidepressants e.g. SSRI’s (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) elevate serotonin levels and cause OFC function to be at a normal level.

Anxiolytic drugs are also used to have a dopamine lowering effect to treat OCD.

What are strengths of drugs as a treatment for OCD?

Most suitable for adults

Widely used as they are relatively cheap

What are limitations of drugs as a treatment of OCD?

Don’t ‘cure’ OCD but mask the symptoms

Side-effects

Instead reduces depressive symptoms not obsessive symptoms

The risk of side effects can increase suicidal tendencies

What is psychosurgery?

Destroying brain tissue to disrupt the cortico-striatal circuit, effects OFC, thalamus and caudate nucleus in the brain to reduce OCD symptoms.

How can CBT be used to treat OCD?

Focuses on changing obsessive thinking with habituation training