Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Symptoms & Treatments

Refs. 1 & 2 are on a layman's level. Refs. 3 & 4 are on an academic level. I read on both levels, but I usually already know all the material on the layman's level.

"SSRIs have largely superseded clomipramine for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder because of their lesser toxicity in overdose and more favourable side effect profile. This is especially important for children, in whom cardiac toxicity may be a risk."

Ref. 3

The report by this British group is available free full text on the Internet at the Pubmed Central database.

OCD

Refs. 5-7 describe the symptoms as well as possible causes.

"Genetic and neurochemical studies also implicate glutamate in the pathology of OCD." Frank P. MacMaster, PhD, Joseph O'Neill, PhD, and David R. Rosenberg, MDCorrespondence: David R. Rosenberg, MD, Psychiatry 9B-UHC; 4201 St. Antoine Boulevard, Detroit, MI 48201; Phone 313-577-9000; Fax 313-577-5900; Email: drosen@med.wayne.edu

I find this interesting because some brilliant work on schizophrenia was done at Wayne State U. in Detroit in the Sixties and Seventies. The quote is from Ref. 8.

The Glutamine Theory

There have also been glutamine theories for schizophrenia. Ref. 10 favors this theory for OCD.

"Our study provides preliminary evidence implicating glutamatergic excess in the pathophysiology of OCD, which needs to be further explored by studies from other centers involving larger sample sets from different age groups."

Neuropsychopharmacology. 2005 Sep;30(9):1735-40.

Glutamatergic dysfunction in OCD.

Chakrabarty K, Bhattacharyya S, Christopher R, Khanna S.

Department of Molecular Neurobiochemistry, International Graduate School of Neuroscience, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.

This result was in the CSF (cerebrospinal fluid).

Treatments

A drug treatment is discussed in Ref. 11. Other treatments are cognitive therapy, psychosocial rehabilitation, and orthomolecular treatments, which I favor. These latter treatments are safe.

Conclusions

Symtoms include hoarding, hypochondria, trichotillomania (12), etc. Trichotillomania is compulsive hair pulling. the patient pulls his own hair. Hypochondia is an obsession with one's own health. The patient imagins terrible diseases that aren't real.

Anxiety is a major symptom of OCD. Ref. 13 links anxiety to tryptophan and to other amino acids in excess in the brain. This is consistent with the glutamine theory. Like all Associated Content references, it is available free full text at that website. Ref. 14 describes the vegan diet, which I have proposed as a treatment for anxiety. Ref. 15 describes drug abuse, which also has anxiety as a symptom. There are approximately 300 other articles or more at Associated Content devoted to psychiatry. Just search for posts by Craig Olson at this website.

References

1. Hyman B, Pedrick C. The OCD workbook: your guide to breaking free from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 2005-A self help manual for adults and older adolescents, which guides the patient through exposure with response prevention; includes advice for family members.

2. Veale D, Willson R. Overcoming obsessive compulsive disorder. London: Constable & Robinson, 2005-A self help book suitable for adults and older teenagers.

3. Obsessive-compulsive disorder. I Heyman, D Mataix-Cols, and N A Fineberg. BMJ. 2006 August 26; 333(7565): 424-429. doi: 10.1136/bmj.333.7565.424.

4. Skoog G, Skoog I. A 40-year follow up of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1999;56: 121-7.

5. Stein DJ. Obsessive-compulsive disorder. Lancet 2002;360: 397-405.

6. Saxena S, Brody AL, Maidment KM, Smith EC, Zohrabi N, Katz E, et al. Cerebral glucose metabolism in obsessive-compulsive hoarding. Am J Psychiatry 2004;161: 1038-48.

7. Mataix-Cols D, Wooderson S, Lawrence N, Brammer MJ, Speckens A, Phillips ML. Distinct neural correlates of washing, checking and hoarding symptom dimensions in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2004;61: 564-76.

8. BRAIN IMAGING IN PEDIATRIC OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER. Frank P. MacMaster, Joseph O'Neill, and David R. Rosenberg. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2009 June 15. PMCID: PMC2696312

Published in final edited form as: J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2008 November; 47(11): 1262-1272. doi: 10.1097/CHI.0b013e318185d2be.

9. Whiteside SP, Port JD, Deacon BJ, Abramowitz JS. A magnetic resonance spectroscopy investigation of obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety. Psychiatry Res. 2006 Mar 31;146(2):137-147.

10. Chakrabarty K, Bhattacharyya S, Christopher R, Khanna S. Glutamatergic dysfunction in OCD. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2005 Sep;30(9):1735-1740.

11. Coric V, Milanovic S, Wasylink S, Patel P, Malison R, Krystal JH. Beneficial effects of the antiglutamatergic agent riluzole in a patient diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder and major depressive disorder. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2003 May;167(2):219-220.

12. Obsessive-compulsive disorder and trichotillomania: a phenomenological comparison. Christine Lochner, Soraya Seedat, Pieter L du Toit, Daniel G Nel, Dana JH Niehaus, Robin Sandler, and Dan J Stein. BMC Psychiatry. 2005; 5: 2. Published online 2005 January 13.

13. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2371816/anxiety_causes_and_treatment.html

14. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2359246/animal_rights_activism.html

15. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/261514/drug_abuse.html