OCD Treatment - Biological

Question 1

Drug therapy

Answer 1

• most common biological therapy
• aims to correct a chemical imbalance in the brain by decreasing or increasing the levels of a certain neurotransmitter in the brain.

Question 2

SSRIs (antidepressants)

Answer 2

• they block the reuptake pump that reuptakes serotonin back into the pre-synaptic membrane, meaning high levels of serotonin remain in the synapse for longer which increases action potentials and counteracts the low levels of serotonin that are present in OCD.

Question 3

Tricyclics

Answer 3

• they block the mechanism that re-absorbs both serotonin and noradrenaline, prolonging their activity. They are advantageous as they target more than one neurotransmitter but they have greater side effects.

Question 4

Benzodiazpine-

Answer 4

They enhance the activity of GABA which has a calming effect on the nervous system which reduces anxiety.

Question 5

AO3 strengths

Answer 5

+ drugs can reduce anxiety and depression that surrounds OCD, allowing patients to live a normal life, as well as providing motivation for patients to go and seek help to change the obsessions and compulsions through other therapies e.g CBT, to help treat both symptoms and cause.

+ drug therapies are more time efficient and require less effort than therapies such as CBT. This can make it more desirable and less expensive for certain patients.

+ (from explanations): pigot et al used antidepressants (ssris) on OCD patients and found a reduction in symptoms such as compulsions, showing the effectiveness of drug treatments.

Question 6

AO3 weaknesses

Answer 6

• side effects: SSRIs- nausea, headaches, insomnia. BZ- aggressiveness, addiction, memory loss. This could lead to cost outweighing the benefit of the drug for patients, causing them to stop taking the drug which reduces the overall effectiveness.
• drugs treat the symptoms not the cause, this means patients can become dependent on them as if drugs stop, the OCD comes back.