Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Objective: Recent studies on treating obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have investigated
noninvasive brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)
to improve patients’ impaired emotion and cognition. However, such experiments have yielded
mixed results, especially with respect to cognition. This study aimed to investigate whether
anodal and cathodal tDCS applied over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) would
improve decision making and reduce obsession symptoms in patients with OCD.
Methods: the current study is analysis of variance. In this regard, 20 patients with obsessive
compulsive disorder (n=20) were randomly assigned to receive either experimental (active) or
control (sham) tDCS. To measure cognitive functions, the participants underwent a series of
decision making neuropsychological tasks; to measure obsession symptoms, the Yale-brown
obsessive compulsive and Beck anxiety scale (BAI) were used. The parameters of active
tDCS included administration of 2 mA for 20 minutes per day for 15 consecutive days, anode
electrode over the right DLPFC (F4), and cathode electrode over the left DLPFC (F3) region.
Results: After 10 sessions of anodal and cathodal tDCS, patients showed significant
improvement in decision making tasks. The same results were observed for obsession
symptoms.
Conclusion: The data were analyzed by SPSS 18.0.0 software, using analysis of variance
methods.This study demonstrated that anodal tDCS over left DLPFC, concurrent with cathodal
tDCS over right DLPFC, improved cognitive impairment and reduced obsession symptoms in
patients with OCD.

Some but not all models of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) emphasize the role of dysfunctional beliefs in the etiology and maintenance of this disorder. Clinical observations suggest that some OCD patients have prominent dysfunctional beliefs associated with their obsessions and compulsions, while other patients do not show this pattern. It is possible that dysfunctional beliefs play a role in only a

We present the results of a systematic review on the effectiveness of pharmacological treatments for children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Sixty-four studies fulfilled the selection criteria, being the most of them focused in SSRI and Clomipramine. The trials on augmentation strategies and third line monotherapies are scarce, being the majority open-trials and case series. Similarly, studies on combined treatment (psychological and pharmacological) are few; furthermore this is a relevant future research line. It is also remarkable the lack of quasi-experimental and experimental comparison studies and the long-term follow-up measures.

This study examined the effect of the You Can Do It! Education (YCDI) cognitive-behavioural intervention program on the emotional resilience of students in grades 4 to 6 who were identified with achievement, behavioural, social and/or emotional challenges. 61 students were randomly assigned to either small groups receiving an eight week YCDI cognitivebehavioural intervention or small groups receiving “eclectic” counselling other than cognitivebehavioural. Results indicated a positive impact of the YCDI program on the resilience items contained in the ACER Social and Emotional Well-Being Surveys (student self-report; teacher survey) with no positive impact found for students receiving “eclectic” counselling. Results are discussed in terms of the need for social and emotional learning programs that explicitly teach emotional resilience skills. Children of all ages face situations on a daily basis that can evoke negative feelings of anger, anxiety and sadness. The failure to develop ag...

Schizophrenia patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may be a subgroup of schizophrenia, and OCD patients with poor insight may show psychotic-like symptoms. The aim of this work is to compare the neuropsychological performance of those patients with ...

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by multiple tics and associated with co-morbid behavioral problems (TS-plus). We investigated the usefulness of self-report versus parent- and teacher-report instruments in assisting the specialist assessment of TS-plus in a child/adolescent population. Twenty-three patients diagnosed with TS (19 males; age 13.9 ± 3.7 years) and 69 matched healthy controls participated in this study. All recruited participants completed a standardized psychometric battery, including the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), the Self Administrated Psychiatric Scales for Children and Adolescents (SAFA) and the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI). Parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Conners' Parent Rating Scales-Revised (CPRS-R). Participants' teachers completed the Conners' Teacher Rating Scales-Revised (CTRS-R). Results were compared with similar data obtained from controls. Nineteen patients (82.6%) fulfilled DSM-IV-TR criteria for at least one co-morbid condition: obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD, n = 8; 34.8%); attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, n = 6; 26.1%); OCD + ADHD (n = 5; 21.7%). Scores on self-report instruments failed to show any significant differences between TS and controls. Most subscores of the CPRS-R, CTRS-R, and CBCL were significantly higher for the TS group than controls. The TS + OCD subgroup scored significantly higher than the TS-OCD subgroup on the CBCL-Externalizing, Anxious/Depressed and Obsessive-Compulsive subscales. Self-report instruments appear to have limited usefulness in assisting the assessment of the behavioral spectrum of young patients with TS. However, proxy-rated instruments differentiate TS populations from healthy subjects, and the CBCL can add relevant information to the clinical diagnosis of co-morbid OCD.

Traditionally, the dried flower of Echium amoenum (Boraginaceae) has been used in Iran as an anxiolytic and mood enhancer. This study investigated the efficacy and safety of an aqueous extract of E. amoenum in treatment of obsessive–compulsive disorder. Forty-four patients ...

Anxiety disorders represent one of the most common categories of psychopathology in children and adolescents. Apart from separation anxiety disorder, a well recognized problem of childhood, it is now widely accepted that generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, specific phobia, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and panic disorder all occur during the childhood and adolescent years. Numerous studies examining the

According to cognitive models, obsessive compulsive symptoms result from catastrophic misinterpretations of commonly occurring intrusive experiences and the use of counterproductive strategies to manage them. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) related beliefs such as inflated responsibility, importance of thoughts and perfectionism increases the likelihood of such misinterpretations. Consistent with a growing body of literature supporting the usefulness of mobile delivered technologies in fostering cognitive behavior change, the present study assessed the effectiveness of a novel cognitive training exercise designed to challenge OCD-related beliefs. This mobile app training exercise consists of users having to pull statements challenging OCD beliefs towards themselves (downwards) and to throw away (push upwards) contra-productive self-statements. 36 third-year BA students started the trial. Twenty completed pre and post measures of OCD-beliefs, mood and OCD symptoms including relat...

This study evaluated acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for scrupulosity-based obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Five adults were treated with eight sessions of ACT, without in-session exposure, in a multiple baseline across participants design. Daily monitoring of compulsions and avoided valued activities were tracked throughout the study. The Obsessive Compulsive Inventory-Revised, Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity, Beck Depression Inventory-II, Quality of Life Scale, Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire, and the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II were completed at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up. The Treatment Evaluation Inventory was completed at posttreatment. Average daily compulsions reduced as follows: pretreatment = 25.0, posttreatment = 5.6, and follow-up = 4.3. Average daily avoided valued activities reduced as follows: pretreatment = 6.0, posttreatment = 0.7, and follow-up = 0.5. Other measures showed similar patterns. Religious faith only slightly declined: 4% at posttreatment and 7% at follow-up. Treatment acceptability was high.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a disabling psychopathology. The mainstay of treatment includes cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and medication management. However, individual suffering, functional impairments as well as the direct and indirect costs associated with the disease remain substantial. New treatment programmes are necessary and the brief strategic therapy (BST) has recently shown encouraging results in clinical practice but no quantitative study has as yet been conducted. The clinical effectiveness of the OCD-specific BST protocol will be evaluated in a one-group observational study. Participants will be sequentially recruited from a state community psychotherapy clinic in Dublin, Ireland. Outcome measures will be the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Data will be collected at baseline, at treatment termination and at 3 month follow-up. The statistical significance of the post-treatment effect will be ...