Recent advances in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
A growing body of evidence from clinical phenomenology, including associated disorders, brain imaging, and neuropharmacologic studies, links the classic psychiatric syndrome of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to basal ganglia dysfunction and to the serotonin system. At present, OCD is the psychiatric syndrome for which a specific neurologic dysfunction is most strongly suggested, and for which a particularly compelling animal model has been found. It is proposed that dysfunction of basal ganglia-thalamic frontal cortical loops produce "positive" symptoms of excessive grooming, checking, and doubt most common in OCD. Perhaps most intriguing are preliminary data from clinical trials that a spectrum of other abnormal behaviors resembling excessive grooming in both animals and humans may be related to OCD. An ethologic perspective is suggested.
Rapoport
J L
JL
National Institute of Mental Health, Child Psychiatry Branch, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology; D012701:Serotonin / Q000502:physiology
D012701:Serotonin