OCD-biological treatment

• Give some limitations of drug therapies 

  side effects-nausea,headache,insomnia common.tricylics antidepressants more severe-hallucinations,irregular heartbeat.

  BZ- increased aggression and long term impairement of memory.

  little research into long term memory-drugs only prevent symptoms, don't stop cause.
• Give some strengths of drug therapies

  Soomro et al(2008)- reviewed 17 studies of the use of SSRis with OCD patients-effective after 3 months(effective in short term)

  cheap and less effort from patient, unlike CBT which takes multiple homeworks. 
• How do tricyclics impact OCD?

  these block the re-uptake of noradrenaline and serotonin and work in a similar way to SSRIs, but they have more severe side effects, so are second choice treatment.
• How do anti depressant drugs help ocd?

  SSRIs- increase the amount of serotnin in the syanpse so that it canno tbe absorbed back into the pre-synapse cell.This results in more serotonin being released into the post-synaptic neuron.
• What anti anxiety drugs treat OCD?

  Benzodiazepines (BZs) are often used to treat OCD as the reduce levels of anxiety. They work by enhancing the activity of GABA. GABA is a neurotransmitter which inhibits the bodies fight or flight response when it bonds with receptors.

  GABA tells neurons in the brain to ‘slow down’ and ‘stop firing’ and around 40% of the neurons in the brain respond to GABA.