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OCD Flashcards

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1
Q

What is drug therapy

A

something i want, and need :D
- the most commonly used biological therapy for anxiety disorders is drug therapy
- this therapy assumes that there is a chemical imbalance in the brain
- this can be corrected by drugs (gasppp addictttt) which either increase or decrease the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain

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2
Q

What is SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors)

A
  • the standard medical treatment used to tackle the symptoms of OCS are SSRIs
  • SSRIs work on increasing certain neurotransmitter in the brain by preventing the re-absorption of serotonin
  • by preventing the re-absorption of serotonin, SSRIs effectively increase its levels in the synpase and thus continue to stimulate the post-synaptic neuron

sorry.. what now

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3
Q

What did Insel find in 1991

A

That SSRIs can reduce symptoms of OCD in 50-60% of cases

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4
Q

What did Zohar et al find in 1996

A

That SSRIs can alleviate symptoms in 60% of patients with OCD

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5
Q

What other treatments are SSRIs usually paired with

A
  • Drugs are often used alongside cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT)
  • The drugs reduce the sufferer’s emotional symptoms, such as anxiety or depression
  • This means that the patient can then engage more effectively with CBT
  • Some suffered may respond best to CBT alone without the need for medication
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6
Q

How can SSRIs become more effective

A
  • Where an SSRI is not effective after three to four months the dose can be increased or it can be combined with other drugs
  • Patients respond differently drugs and sometimes alternatives work well for some people and not at all for others
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7
Q

What are some alternatives to SSRIs

A
  • Tricyclics - this is an older type of antidepressant that has the same effect on serotonin as SSRIs (clomipramine)
  • SNRIs - serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors, second line of defence for patients who do not respond well to SSRIs
  • NASSAs - noradrenaline and specific serotonergic antidepressants
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8
Q

Give some positive evaluation for drug therapy

A

Drug therapy is effective at tackling OCD symptoms:
There is clear research to suggest that SSRIs are effective in reducing the severity of OCD symptoms

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9
Q

Give some more positive evaluations for drug therapy

A

Drugs are cost-effective and non-disruptive:
drug treatments are cheap in comparison to psychological treatments and unlike psychotherapy, they are non-disruptive to patients lives

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10
Q

Give some negative evaluation for drug therapy

A

Drugs can have side effects: although the use of drugs is effective for most, a significant minority receive no benefit and/or may suffer side-effects: weight gain, dry mouth, sexual dysfunction and a loss of memory. Coming off a drug is a slow process in which the dosage has to be gradually reduced over a period of six months - risk of relapse

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11
Q

Give two more negative evaluations of drug therapy

A
  • Unreliable evidence for drug treatments: if drug companies sponsor the research, they may decide to suppress any results that do not support the drug they are marketing (currently many drug companies do not publish all of their results and may indeed be depressing evidence which suggests the data on the effectiveness of drugs may not be trustworthy)
  • Some cases of OCD follow trauma: although OCD is widely believed to be biological in origin, it is also accepted that OCD can have different causes
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12
Q

What is trichotillomania

A

Compulsive hair pulling

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13
Q

What is OCD in terms of its categories

A

Characterised by obsessions and or compulsions

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14
Q

What is the hoarding disorder

A

The compulsive gathering of possessions and the inability to part with anything regardless of its value

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15
Q

What is the excoriation disorder

A

Compulsive skin picking

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16
Q

What does the DSM describe as the main symptoms of OCD to be

A
  • recurrent obsessions and compulsions
  • recognition by the individual that the obsessions and compulsions are excessive and/or unreasonable
  • that the person is distressed or impaired and daily life is disrupted by the obsessions and compulsions
17
Q

What are the behavioural, emotional and cognitive symptoms of OCD

A

Behavioural: how a person acts which typically leads to the carrying out of repetitive actions to reduce anxiety. This often leads to avoidance of situations that trigger anxiety
Emotional: OCD may feel depressed and/or other negative emotions; guilt and disgust
Cognitive: OCD sufferers are usually plagued with obsessive thoughts, they also tend to develop cognitive strategies and anxiety

18
Q

What is the OCD cycle

A

Obsessive thought –> anxiety –> compulsive behaviour –> temporary relief
and then the cycle starts again (like my cycle of wanting to cry :D)

19
Q

What are the biological assumptions for OCD

A
  • OCD has been explained in a number of ways but the biological approach offers particularly useful suggestions as to how it is caused
  • It has been proposed that there is a genetic component to OCD which predisposes some individuals to the illness
  • The genetic explanation suggests that whether a person develops OCD is at least party due to their genes; this may explain why patients often have other family members with OCD
20
Q

What did Billet et al and Bellodi et al say about genetics and OCD

A

They claim that genetic factors play a role in the disorder. Using evidence from twin studies and family studies they showed that close relatives are more likely to have the disorder than more distant relatives

21
Q

What did Mckeon and Murray say about genetics and OCD

A

Patients with OCD are more likely to have first degree relatives who suffer from anxiety disorders

22
Q

What did Lewis and Pails et al say about genetics and OCD

A

There is a higher percentage of OCD sufferers in relatives of patients with OCD than in the control group without OCD

23
Q

What are some genetic explanations for OCD
think of bert and gert, brother and sister with ocd

A
  • Candidate genes are ones which through research have been implicated in the development of OCD
  • A possible candidate gene is the SERT gene which is involved in regulating serotonin, a neurotransmitter which facilitates message transfer across synapses
  • Another possible candidate gene is the COMT gene - this regulates the production of dopamine
  • Dopamine effects motivation and drive
24
Q

What is the diathesis-stress model

A

It suggests that people gain a vulnerability towards OCD through genes but an environmental stressor is also required. This could be a stressful event for example a bereavement

25
Q

What does polygenic mean and how does it tie into OCD

A

Polygenic means that its development is not determined by a single gene but a few (maybe as many as 230 genes) - this means that there is little predictive power from this explanation

26
Q

Give some positive evaluation for genetic explanations of OCD

A

There is evidence to suggest there is a genetic component to the disorder; one of the best sources of evidence for the importance of genes is twin studies

27
Q

Give some negative evaluation for genetic explanations of OCD

A
  • Family studies could also be used to explain environmental influences
  • Close relatives of OCD suffers may have observed and imitated the behaviour
  • It is difficult to untangle the effects of environment and genetic factors
28
Q

Give some positive evaluation of candidate genes

A

Candidate genes are ones which through research have been implicated in the development of OCD

29
Q

Give some negative evaluation of candidiate genes

A
  • There are too many genes involved
  • Psychologists have not been successful at pinning down all the genes involved
  • Each genetic variation only increases the risk of OCD by a fraction
30
Q

Give some positive evaluation of the diathesis stress model

A

Individuals may gain a vulnerability towards OCD through genes that is then triggered by an environmental stressor

31
Q

Give some negative evaluation of the diathesis stress model

A

Cromer found that over half the OCD patients in their sample had a traumatic event in the past, and that OCD was more severe in those with more than one trauma

32
Q

What is the reductionist approach and how does it tie into OCD

A
  • Due to the biological approach not taking into consideration other approaches in psychology, it is reductionist
  • There is some evidence of genetics for OCD but it is not the complete picture; for symptoms and causes
  • This means that it may be more productive to focus on environmental causes as it seems that not all OCD is entirely genetic in origin
33
Q

What are neural explanations

A

How the genes associated with OCD are likely to affect the levels of key neurotransmitters as well as structures of the brain

34
Q

What are neural explanations of OCD to do with how the basal ganglia acts

A
  • Researchers have implicated a part of the brain called the basal ganglia which is responsible for innate psychomotor functions
  • Rapoport and Wise (2010) proposed the hypersensitivity of the basal ganglia gives a rise to the repetitive motor behaviours seen in OCD, for example repetitive washing/cleaming and checking
35
Q

What is another area of the brain believed to be involved in OCD

A

The orbitofrontal cortext and the thalamus
The thalamus is brain area whose functions include cleaning, checking and other safety behaviours

36
Q

Give some positive evaluation of neurotransmitters

A

Allows medication to be developed which helps sufferers

37
Q

What is some negative evaluation of neurotransmitters

A
  • Drugs are not completely effective
  • Just because administering SSRIs decreases OCD symptoms doesn’t mean that this was the cause in the first place
  • There is time delay between taking drugs to target the condition and any improvements being made and yet the chemical imbalance is addressed in hours
38
Q

Give some positive evaluation of the areas of the brain

A
  • Advances in tech have allowed researcheers to investigate specific areas of the brain more accurately and OCD sufferers do seem to have excessive activity in the orbital frontal cortex
  • Cleaning and checking behaviours are “hard-wired” in the thalamus
39
Q

Give some negative evaluation of areas of the brain

A
  • The repetitive acts (compulsions) may be explained by the structural abnormality of the basal ganglia but not necessarily the obsessional thoughts
  • There are inconsistencies found in the research as no system has been found that always plays a role in OCD
  • These neural changes could be as a result of suffering from the disorder, not necessarily the cause of it

psychology (27 decks)

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