AO1 Explaining OCD

• what is OCD?

  • a disorder characterised by obsessions and compulsions, causing repetitive intrusive thoughts and anxiety reducing behaviours
• what is the OCD cycle?

  obsessive though -> anxiety -> compulsive behaviour -> temporary relief ->
• what behavioural traits does OCD cause?

  • repetitive compulsions e.g. ordering and washing - sufferers compelled to do in order to alleviate anxiety
  • avoidance - sufferers avoid anxiety-inducing stimulus, then they won't have the need for the compulsions but get stuck in the OCD cycle
• what emotional traits does OCD cause?

  • anxiety and distress - obsessive thoughts are often unpleasant and frightening, also cause negative cognition (based on irrational beliefs)
  • guilt and disgust - sufferer feels irrational personal guilt and disgust at self (often based on unwanted sexual thoughts)
• what cognitive traits can OCD cause?

  • obsessive/irrational/beliefs which are recurrent - 90% of sufferers have this which are unpleasant
  • sufferers use many coping strategies like praying and meditating to try to relieve irrational thoughts
• what is the genetic explanation for OCD?

  • SERT - serotonin, transported across synapse
  • low levels is problematic as healthy levels of serotonin involved in regulating mood - relaxes us
  • COMT - dopamine implicated in being frantic, common in OCD patients
  • OCD is polygenic - SERT and COMT not only genes implicated, attributed to several genes
  • group of genes causing OCD may differ in different individuals (aetiologically heterogenous)
  • gene impairment causes vulnerability to OCD but stressors in the environment trigger - shown by Diathesis-Stress Model
• what is the neural explanation for OCD?

  • serotonin associated with OCD and regulates mood - low levels mean synaptic transmission may not occur, mood change isn't passed on
  • abnormal frontal lobes - orbitofrontal lobe involved in logical thinking and decision making - especially about unpleasant emotions - OCD patients have high activity
  • basal ganglia - processes unpleasant emotions and regulates our ability to worry - hyperactivity linked to repetitive compulsions - communication between certain areas of brain is disturbed which might also account for compulsions