Biological Approach To Ocd And Treatment

Question 1

What are the symptoms of ocd

Answer 1

1.Obsessions- which are the negative thoughts (disturbing and reoccurring)which lead to the feelings of
2.guilt and anxiety
3.compulsions- repetitive behaviours that people feel an urge to do to reduce feelings of guilt and anxiety

Question 2

What is the neural explanation of ocd?

Answer 2

ocd sufferers have a impaired communication between the basal ganglia and the orbital frontal cortext.
-orbital frontal context becoming less inhibited=hyperactive.
-Signal sent from basal ganglia to orbital frontal cortex leads to serotonin being released in the orbital frontal cortex which inhibits neural activity in the orbital frontal cortext.
-Those with ocd have lower levels of ocd which lead to hyperactivity

Question 3

How does communication work between the basal ganglia and the orbital frontal cortex?

Answer 3

Orbital frontal cortex detects worrying stimulus and decides on an action — which sends signals to the motor cortex(which control our movement)—this is then received by the basal ganglia which monitors the outcome of the actions and sends inhibitory to the orbital frontal cortex to shut down the signals

Question 4

Case study support for neural explanation to ocd

Answer 4

Max et al — structural damage to basal ganglia which lead to ocd supporting idea that disturbed communication between the basal ganglia and the orbital frontal cortext is the cause of ocd.

Question 5

Support for neural explanation to ocd

Answer 5

SAXENA AND RUACH- compared brain activity of sufferers and non-sufferers found hyperactivity in the orbital frontal cortex of those who had ocd

Question 6

Limitation of neural explanation

Answer 6

Results are inconsistent and cannot always be replicated
Aylward et al - saw no difference of the basal ganglia of healthy people and suffers

Question 7

What is the genetic explanation of ocd?

Answer 7

Specific alleles which increase the risk such as the sert gene - produces re uptake proteins that carry serotonin back into the pre synaptic terminal —leading to less serotonin being at the synapse
Long allele produces more reuptake protein than the short allele causing less serotonin to be available at the synapse leading to less inhibition of neural activity at the post synaptic neurone.

Question 8

Give 3 examples of research to support the genetic explanation for ocd?

Answer 8

BILLET et al - found a concordance rate of 68% to 31% for monozygotic twins to dz twins

NESTADT ET AL- interviewed a group fo patients with ocd and a control group and on tweed the relatives of both groups and found that 12% of those with ocd had a relative who also had it compared to those in the control who only 3% of their relatives had it.

HU et al - dna analysis found that suffers were more likely to carry the long alleles on the sert gene than the control group.

Question 9

LIM for twin studies

Answer 9

—High concordance rate of my twins at be due to their shared environment which may lead to them being treated equally
—concordance rate is also not 100% showing that there may be other factors
-assumes that both my and dz twins share the same environment

Question 10

Treatment for ocd SSRI

Answer 10

They block the re uptake of serotonin meaning there is more serotonin available at the synapses in the orbital frontal cortex leading to more inhibition which leads to a reduction of hyperactivity.

Question 11

A03 for the biological treatment of ocd

Answer 11

Soomro et al- 70% of those with ocd saw an improvement in symptoms with ssri drugs
-cost effective
X-however side effects Seen such as headaches seen by soomro
X-If patients stop taking the drug then they may relapse means they must keep taking the drug
X-O’Connor found that combining cbt and ssri led the biggest improvement