OCD Flashcards
What are the emotional characteristics of OCD
- Anxiety worry distress
- disgust, shame, guilt
What are the cognitive characteristics of OCD
- Obsessive recurring thoughts
- Sufferer recognises these are unreasonable
- But believe something bad will happen without compulsions
What are the behavioural characteristics of OCD
- Ritualistic repetitive compulsions that neutralise the obsessions
What is OCD
An anxiety disorder involving intrusive and uncontrollable thoughts combined with the need to perform specific acts repeatedly
What are the two biological exclamations of OCD
Genetic
Neural
What are the two genes that give a person a predisposition for OCD
- variation or mutation in the SERT gene and COMT gene
What does a variation in the COMT gene cause
There is less of an enzyme that regulates dopamine levels resulting in high levels of dopamine
What does a variation in the SERT gene cause
Affects the transport of serotonin resulting in low levels
What is research support by billett et al. that supports genetic explanations of OCD 
- completed a Meta-analysis of 14 twin studies
- Found one of the monozygotic twins is two times more likely to develop OCD than dizygotic twins when the other already has OCD
What is Nestadt et al. research supporting genetic explanations of OCD
- 80 patients with OCD and their 343 close relatives compared with a control group of mentally healthy people and their relatives
- people with a close relative with OCD are 5x more likely to develop OCD
What are the 2 neural explanations for OCD
- damaged caudate nucleus meaning worry signals can’t be suppressed
- imbalances in neurotransmitters e.g. serotonin and dopamine
What is the OCD cycle
Starts with obsessive thoughts
Which creates anxiety
So compulsions are carried out
Giving temporary relief
Before anxiety returns
How does a damaged caudate nucleus increased likelihood of OCD
- The caudate nucleus is responsible for suppressing signals sent by the orbitofrontal cortex
- It being damaged means worry signals are not suppressed leading to increase anxiety and compulsive behaviour

What support is there for neural exclamations of OCD
- Patients who had the basil ganglia disconnected from the frontal (Stopping signals being sent to the caudate nucleus) Reduced symptoms of OCD
A03 Evaluation of biological exclamations for OCD
+ Supporting evidence
+ Has practical applications like drug therapy
- Biological reductionism, Ignores cognition and environmental factors
- Evidence is correlational no cause-and-effect is established
- Biological determinism, Clearly an issue because the biological factors only provide a person with a predisposition to develop OCD (diathesis stress model)
