OCD

• What is OCD characterise by?

  Obsessive and compulsive behaviours.
• What 4 features make up the OCD cycle?

  Obsessive thoughts, anxiety, compulsive behaviour, temporary relief.
• What are the behavioural aspects of OCD?

  The way a person behaves which typically leads to repetitive actions to reduce anxiety which can often lead to avoidance of situations that trigger anxiety.
• What are the emotional aspects of OCD?

  How a person may feel when experiencing anxiety which accompanies the obsessions/compulsions. Sufferers may feel depressed, guilty, ashamed.
• What are the cognitive aspects of OCD?

  OCD sufferers are usually plagued with obsessive thoughts and irrational beliefs about what might happen if they don't do the compulsions.
• What are the main symptoms of OCD?

  Recurrent obsessions and compulsions.

  Recognition by the individual that the obsessions and compulsions are excessive/unreasonable.

  The person is distressed or impaired.

  Daily life is disrupted by obsession/compulsions.
• Which approach is related to OCD?

  Biological.
• What are the two explanations for OCD (relating to the biological approach)?

  Neural and genetic
• What does the genetic explanation suggest?

  Whether a person develops OCD is at least partly due to their genes. A candidate gene would need to be identified for the potential cause of OCD.
• What is the role of the SERT gene?

  It's involved in regulating serotonin, a neurotransmitter which facilitates message transfer across synapses.
• What is the role of the COMT gene?

  This regulates the production of dopamine.
• What does the diathesis stress model suggest?

  People gain a vulnerability towards OCD through genes but an an environmental stressor is also required.
• What does polygenic mean?

  OCD's development is not determined by a single gene but a few - this means that there is little predictive power from genetic explanations.
• What is the key idea of neural explanations?


  The genes associated with OCD are likely to affect the levels of key neurotransmitters as well as structures of the brain.
• What is neuroimaging?


  Brain scans that have enabled researchers to study the brain in detail and to identify normal brain patterns, allowing for comparisons with abnormal brain patterns.
• What is the basal ganglia responsible for?

  Innate psychomotor functions.
• How can hypersensitivity of the basal ganglia cause OCD?

  It causes the repetitve motor behaviours seen in OCD such as washing, cleaning and checking.
• What part of the brain is involved in decision making and worries about social/other behaviours?

  Orbital Front Cortex
• What parts of the brain are believed to be overactive?

  Orbital front cortex, thalamus
• What would an overactive thalamus result in?

  An increased motivation to clean or check for safety. If the thalamus is overactive, the OFC would also become overactive.
• What would an overactive OFC result in?

  Increased anxiety and increased planning to avoid anxiety.
• What is a strength of genetic explanations of OCD?

  It has been implicated in the development of OCD through research: Nestadt (2010) reviewed twin studies and found that 68% of identical twins shared OCD as opposed to 31% of non-identical twins.
• What is a weakness of genetic explanations of OCD?

  It may be more productive to focus on environmental causes as it seems that not all OCD is entirely genetic in origin: Cromer et al (2007) found that over half the OCD patients in their sample had a traumatic event in the past, and that OCD was more severe in those with more than one trauma.
• What is a biological treatment for OCD?

  Drug therapy
• What is drug therapy?


  Assumes that there is a chemical imbalance in the brain which can be corrected by drugs, which either increase or decrease the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain.
• What is the standard medical treatment used to tackle the symptoms of OCD?

  SSRIs
• What do SSRIs work on?

  Increasing certain neurotransmitters in the brain by preventing the reabsorption of serotonin.
• By preventing the reabsorption of serotonin...


  SSRIs effectively increase its levels in the synapse and thus continue to stimulate the postsynaptic neuron.
• what other treatments are SSRIs usually combined with?

  CBT
• What are some alternative treatments to SSRIs?

  Tricyclics and benzodiazepines.
• When may alternative drugs to SSRIs be used?

  Where an SSRI is not effective after 3 to 4 months the dose can be increased or it can be combined with other drugs. Patients respond differently to drugs and sometimes alternatives work well for some people and not at all for others.
• what are tricyclics used for?

  they're reserved for those who do not respond well to SSRIs.