limitations of treating ocd

• SSRIs can cause side effects as they block serotonin reuptake in the whole brain, this can cause unwanted side effects
• soomro et al found that patients treated with SSRIs experienced side effects like nausea, headaches and insomnia
• if patients stop taking SSRIs they may relapse, their symptoms could quickly return
• patients need to keep taking the drugs indefinitely and cope with side effects in order to prevent relapse
• SSRIs may not be effective at treating the underlying cause of ocd, may be other factors like cognitive that may contribute to ocd
• may need to combine drug treatment and cognitive therapy like cbt to treat ocd
• o'connor et al found that combining biological and cognitive treatments for ocd could be more effective, patients who were treated with both cbt and ssris showed the biggest improvements