title: Nicotine treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
abstract: Following initial observations of marked effects of nicotine self-medication in a patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), another four OCD patients were treated with nicotine for eight weeks in an open label fashion. Patients fulfilling DSM-IV criteria for OCD and with initial Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) score>15 were included in the study. The patients were scored with YBOCS, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), NIMH Global Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (NIMH) and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF). Four of five patients receiving nicotine treatment displayed a favourable response with reductions in YBOCS scores. For these four patients, the nicotine chewing gum enabled a more adequate behaviour in stressful, OCD-eliciting, situations. We feel that these results are encouraging enough to warrant a larger, controlled study on nicotine treatment of OCD.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Clinic, Kungälvs Sjukhus, Kungälv, Sweden.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lundberg
authors.forename: Arvid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carlsson
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Norfeldt
authors.forename: Maria L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Carlsson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009538:Nicotine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018722:Nicotinic Agonists / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology
chemical_list: D018722:Nicotinic Agonists; D009538:Nicotine