BAP/SKB Young Psychopharmacologist Award Towards a neuroendocrinology of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Neuroendocrine research has made an important contribution to the understanding of psychiatric illness in vivo. This review is a summary of the recent neuroendocrine studies on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients carried out at the Departments of Psychiatry at Trinity College Medical School and St. Patrick's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. We found that both serotonergic and cholinergic abnormalities were present in OCD, while noradrenergic responsivity and hypothalmic-pituitary axis function were normal. The data suggests that OCD may have a unique neuroendocrinology.
Lecturer and Wellcome Fellow, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF, UK.
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Lucey