Explaining OCD: Psychopathology

• AO1 - genetic explanation


  -study found that 37% of hic OCD patients had parents with OCD And 21% had siblings with OCD.

  -diathesis-stress model suggests certain genes leave people more likely to suffer a mental disorder- but some environmental stress is necessary to trigger the condition

  Candidate genes

  -genes that create vulnerability for OCD

  -some of these genes regulate the serotonin system

  OCD is polygenic

  -not caused by a single gene but several, a study found that 230 different genes may be involved in ocd

  - its thought that different dopamine systems can be linked to OCD.

  Diff types of OCD

  -one group of genes may cause ocd in one person but a different group of genes may cause the disorder in another. this term is called aetiologically heterogeneous

  - diff types of OCD may be result of genetic varitations
• AO1- neural explanations


  - genes associated with OCD affect levels of neurotransmitters.

  - serotonin helps regulate mood and if a person has low levels of serotonin then normal transmission of mood relevant information doesnt take place

  Decision making systems

  -some cases of OCD may be associated with impaired decision making

  -May be linked to abnormal functioning of the lateral of the frontal lobes of the brain

  -Also the parahippocampal gyrus, which is associated with processing unpleasant emotions , may be functioning abnormally in OCD
• AO3- strength for genetic explanations


  - supporting evidence

  -shows some people are vulnerable to OCD due to their genetic makeup for example a study (Nedstat, 2010) found 68% of identical twins shared OCD compared to 31% of non-identical twins. - Research also suggests that a person with a family member diagnosed with OCD is around 4x as likely to develop it than someone without it

  -This suggests that there must be some genetic influence on the development of OCD
• AO3- limitation for genetic explanations


  -there are environmental risk factors

  -To contradict the genetic explanatins, research has suggested that environmental factors are a likely trigger for OCD. For example Cromer et al found that over half of the OCD clients in their sample had experienced a traumatic event in their past

  -ocd was also more severe in those with more traumas

  -This suggests that it may have been better to focus on environmental causes as we are more able to do something about these
• AO3- strength for neural explanations


  - some supporting evidence

  -for exampke antidepressants that increase serotonin have been found to reduce symptoms of OCD.

  -Also OCD symptoms form part of conditions that are known to be biological in origin, such as parkinsons disease, which causes muscle tremors and paralysis.

  -If a biological disorder produces OCD symptoms then we may assume the biological processes underlie OCD

  -This implies that biological factors may also be responsible for OCD
• AO3- limitation for neural explanations


  - no unique neural system

  -many people with ocd also experience clinical depression

  -having two disorders together is called co-morbidity.

  - this depression involves disruption to the action of serotonin. this leaves us with the logical problem when it comes to serotonin as a possible basis for ocd

  -it could simply be that serotonin activity is disrupted in many people with OCD because they are depressed as well

  -This means that serotonin may not be relevant to ocd systems.