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.
National Institute of Mental Health, Child Psychiatry Branch, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.
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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