OCD

Question 1

what is OCD?

Answer 1

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a disorder of which can be seen through intrusive and uncontrollable thoughts which are seen as obsessions and then the need to do a physical action in order to fulfil these which are the compulsions

Question 2

what are common examples of obsessions?

Answer 2

fear of contamination, thoughts of violence, sexual obsessions and obsessive doubt

Question 3

what are common examples of compulsions?

Answer 3

cleaning, washing, counting, checking and touching.

Question 4

why are compulsions so powerful?

Answer 4

people who have them believe that something terrible will happen if they are not carried out. if this is not done then they will suffer from extreme levels of anxiety

Question 5

what are the biological explanations of OCD?

Answer 5

Genetic: if you inherit certain genes from your parents you may be predisposed to OCD.

Neural: some neurotransmitters and structures in the brain have been liked with OCD

Question 6

what is the diathesis stress model?

Answer 6

the idea that OCD can be predisposed through inheritance of genes however something in your life still need to happen in order to trigger it

Question 7

what is a polygenic disorder?

Answer 7

when 2 or more genes are linked to the disorder it is polygenic. OCD has had up to 230 genes which have been linked to it.

Question 8

what does OCD being polygenic explain?

Answer 8

the different types of OCD. for example one might think if they step on cracks in the pavement then they will get hurt. another may think if they don’t wash their hands until they bleed then they will die from germs

Question 9

where does the information of OCD come from?

Answer 9

family studies, twin studies and research methods

Question 10

what are two genes that are linked with OCD?

Answer 10

COMT and SERT gene

Question 11

what doe the COMT gene do?

Answer 11

the COMT gene helps reduce dopamine. the variant means that there is no longer enough COMT and dopamine levels become uncontrolled and raise to high. this is what causes the high focus of obsessions and why they cannot forget about them

Question 12

what does the SERT gene do?

Answer 12

the SERT gene is what causes the transport of serotonin. when there is means that when it mutates the reuptake of serotonin become too active in the synapse. this means that serotonin is going before it has time to bind. when there is too little seatonin it can cause depressive thoughts and anxiety.

Question 13

what happens the SERT and COMT gene are mutated?

Answer 13

the COMT mutation will lead to obsessions and the SERT mutation is was causes the anxiety. this makes up obsessive compulsive disorder

Question 14

what did Nestadt et al (2000) show?

Answer 14

people have 5x the chance of OCD if a first degree relative has it

Nestadt et al (2010) showed 68% concordance in MZ twins and 32% concordance with DZ twins

Question 15

what did Billett et at (1998) show?

Answer 15

a meta analysis (multiple sets of data from studies) showed MZ twins are twice as likely to develop OCD if the other has it over DZ twins

Question 16

what did Ozaki et al (2003) show about the SERT gene in relation to OCD?

Answer 16

mutation of the SERT gene was found in two separate families of which 6 of the 7 members had OCD. this suggests that there is vulnerability

Question 17

what supports the genetic explanation of OCD?

Answer 17

OCD is polygenic which explains different types

drugs made based of this idea of serotonin and dopamine help the symptoms

experiments of which animals are injected with dopamine causes them to display characteristics of OCD

Question 18

what goes against the genetic explanation of OCD?

Answer 18

genes only create a vulnerability and so is weakened when someone in a family with no OCD develops the disorder

because concordance rates are never 100% means that other factors are involved eg environment

SLT suggest that OCD can be developed culturally through families by observing the others behaviour

families share the same environment so it could be the environment causing the concordance and not the genes

Question 19

what are the neural explanations for OCD?

Answer 19

it concerns regions in the brain such as its structure and neurotransmitters (NT’s)

Question 20

what does the frontal lobe do?

Answer 20

it is responsible for decision making and logical reasoning

Question 21

what could happen if the frontal lobe was not working properly?

Answer 21

certain types of OCD (hoarding especially) are linked with the decision making of which the frontal lobe is responsible for

Question 22

what is the OFC?

Answer 22

Orbital Frontal Cortex

Question 23

what can an overactive OFC cause?

Answer 23

uncontrolled primal functions, for example people will wash their hands in order to avoid germs and it is our OFC that tells us when to stop. If someone has an overactive OFC then it will not tell them when to stop. this will lead them to believe they must wash their hands for far to long sometimes to the point that their hands are bleeding

Question 24

what is the orbitofrontal cortex circuit?

Answer 24

OCF sends worry signals to the thalamus

Caudate nucleus monitors the signals

thalamus sends filtered information of the danger back

Question 25

what will happen when the orbitofrontal cortex circuit is not working?

Answer 25

the thalamus will not send the filtered information back so the OFC will always see the danger s still there. this can be seen as with washing hands the OFC will keep thinking that the germs are still present

Question 26

what is done in extreme cases of which the orbitofrontal circuit is not working?

Answer 26

surgery can be done to disconnect the basal ganglia from the frontal cortex to reduce symptoms of sever OCD however is a last resort

Question 27

what is are basal ganglia?

Answer 27

they are a group of structures primarily for motor control, as well as other roles such as motor learning, executive functions and behaviours, and emotions.

Question 28

whats a strength of the biological explanation for OCD?

Answer 28

Strengths of this approach include its
testability via neuroscience research,
evidence for genetic and
neurotransmitter involvement.

Question 29

what are weaknesses of the biological explanation for OCD?

Answer 29

The biological explanations are also deterministic
because they ignore the individual’s ability to control
their own behaviour, which in turn may affect their
biochemistry levels.

The approach can also be criticised for ignoring
environmental influences. For example, people are
not born with OCD they might learn it from their
environment through the process of classical and
operant conditioning.

Improvement rates from use of drugs are only at
50% so there must be other causes.