Psychopathology - OCD Flashcards
What are the behavioural characteristics of OCD?
- Compulsions: checking or cleaning behaviours
- Avoidance of behaviour that leads to obsessive thoughts and reductions of social interactions due to anxiety
What are the emotional characteristics of OCD?
- Extreme anxiety caused by persistent obsessive thoughts
- Depression due to the impact of the disorder on enjoyable activities
What are the cognitive characteristics of OCD?
- Obsessions which are reoccurring thoughts focusing on the worst-case scenario
- An understanding that the catastrophic thinking is irrational is also another cognitive characteristic of OCD
What is the biological approach to explaining OCD? (The genetic explanation)
- A genetic explanation states that the disorder is inherited
- Individual gene markers are often present in sufferers of OCD such as gene 9, COMT and SERT, however the disorder is polygenic with as many as 230 individual genes identified in people with OCD
- Family studies support the genetic origin of OCD as there is a 10% concordance rate in first degree relatives and twin studies show as high as an 87% concordance rate
- This contrasts the initial percentage of people with OCD which is only 2% of the general population
What is the biological approach to explaining OCD? (The neural explanation)
- The neural explanation for OCD suggests that gene changes can influence the functions of neural systems
- Low levels of the inhibitory neurotransmitter serotonin can be seen in people with OCD
- Serotonin is responsible for preventing repetition of tasks, repetition of tasks is a symptom seen in people with OCD (Due to their low levels of serotonin)
How does OCD influence the functions of neural systems such as the communication between the basal ganglia and other structures such as the orbito-frontal cortex?
- In people with OCD, the communication between their basal ganglia and other structures such as the orbito-frontal cortex is abnormal
- The basal ganglia is responsible for involuntary movements in Parkinson’s, suggesting there is a link between the functionality of a persons basal ganglia and their tendency for compulsions and repetitive motor functions
- An over activity in the orbito-frontal cortex is seen in people with OCD, the orbito-frontal cortex is responsible for predicting future events, suggesting its link to obsession/obsessive behaviour
How does the study carried about by Hu support the genetic explanation for OCD?
-In a study with 169 people with OCD and 253 controls Hu found significant genetic differences linked to the functioning of their serotonin transporters
What is a disadvantage of using twin studies to support the genetic explanation for OCD?
-Family studies are flawed due to the factors of living in a shared environment such as social learning processes
How do SSRI’s support the neural explanation for OCD?
- SSRI’s are effective in treating OCD, this suggests that low levels of serotonin can cause symptoms for OCD such as repetition of tasks
- However the SSRI’s may just be covering up the symptoms rather than actually treating them for the long-term
What is a disadvantage of the biological approach to explaining OCD?
- The biological approach could be seen to be biologically reductionist as it disregards environmental factors
- Biological explanations ignore the role of the family members or cognitive explanations that also provide effective treatments based on a more complex system of irrational thought processing
What is the biological approach to treating OCD?
- Drug therapy is used as chemical treatment that influences biological functioning
- Drugs that are often used to treat depression for the reduction of anxiety are used to treat OCD as well
- This is because low levels of serotonin is associated with obsessions and compulsions, therefore SSRI’s are prescribed
- This makes the neurotransmitter more effective in its inhibitory role by keeping it in the synaptic cleft
What drugs are used if SSRI’s are ineffective?
- Non-selective re-uptake drugs are used such as tricyclics or SNRI’s
- These influence other neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine
- However they have more intense side effects
How can psychosurgery be used to treat OCD?
- Psychosurgery is also used to disrupt/cut the communication between the orbito-frontal cortex and the other areas of the brain
- More experimental psychosurgery includes deep brain stimulation which is the placement of electrodes in the brain to disrupt signalling
How does Greist’s meta analysis support the biological approach to treating OCD?
- Greist conducted a meta-analysis of placebo-controlled drug trials, including 1520 participants
- The study showed that all four drugs were more effective than the placebo, with clomipramine as the most effective
How does publication bias limit the validity of using drug therapy as a way of treating OCD?
- Publication bias is possible as drug companies don’t want to release negative results due to the financial incentive from showing that their drug is effective
- It has been seen that positive results are more likely to be published than negative results due to this financial incentive to only publish the positive results
