[Comparison of cerebral blood flow in children with obsessive compulsive disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder].
OBJECTIVE
It has been reported that both obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) might be related to impairments in frontal-striatal brain circuits. Besides, these two disorders are frequently comorbid. However, there are no published studies directly comparing the neurobiological findings in these two disorders. The objective of the study was to investigate the differences in cortical blood flow between patients with OCD and ADHD.


METHODS
Thirteen drug-naive OCD subjects (mean age +/- SD: 10.4 +/- 2.8), and 13 drug-naive ADHD subjects (mean age +/- SD: 10.5 +/- 2.2) were included in the study. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) was evaluated with Tc-99m-hexamethylpropyleneamine oxime (Tc99m HMPAO) brain single photon emission tomography (SPECT) during standard resting conditions in all cases. P value was set to <.006 after Bonferroni correction.


RESULTS
OCD cases had significantly higher right prefrontal (p=.003) CBF than ADHD cases. There were no significant CBF differences in other brain regions. OCD symptom severity was not related to CBF.


CONCLUSIONS
This is one of the very few studies which directly investigated brain imaging in pediatric OCD subjects. Results are consistent with previous studies reporting increased prefrontal CBF in OCD subjects. We also found that, consistent with the previous literature, ADHD subjects had lower prefrontal cortex CBF. Studies which compare subjects with comorbid ADHD and OCD with pure forms of these disorders are necessary to have a better understanding of similarities and differences of these two disorders.
Oner
Pinar
P
Atatürk Eğitim ve Araştirma Hastanesi, Cocuk Psikiyatri Bl. pinaryoner@yahoo.com
Oner
Ozgür
O
Aysev
Ayla
A
Küçük
Ozlem
O
Ibiş
Erkan
E
D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000098:blood supply*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D019690:Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019690:Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime