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In childhood, rituals like regular schedules for meal, bath, and bed times are a healthy part of behavioral development. But combined with oral and tactile sensitivities, such as discomfort at the dentist or irritation caused by specific fabrics, these rituals could be an early warning sign of adult Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
Before she could seek to convince the world that her computer model of a key brain circuit explains a fundamental, 80-year-old mystery of neuroscience with potential relevance to Parkinson’s disease, Stephanie Jones sought to convince Christopher Moore. The new Brown neuroscience professors are now close collaborators, but when they first started talking about the beta oscillations of the cortex, Moore thought Jones was plain wrong, if not a bit nuts.
A review of previous studies suggests that even though atypical antipsychotic medications are commonly used for off-label conditions such as behavioral symptoms of dementia, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, these medications are effective for only a few off-label conditions, and that the benefits and harms of these medications for these uses vary, according to an article in the September 28 issue of JAMA.
Children and teens with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) who were receiving some benefit from treatment with medication had a significantly greater reduction in OCD symptoms with the addition of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), according to a study in the September 21 issue of JAMA. The study was carried out by Martin E. Franklin, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, and colleagues.
People suffering from body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD — a severe mental illness characterized by debilitating misperceptions that one appears disfigured and ugly — process visual information abnormally, even when looking at inanimate objects, according to a new UCLA study. First author Dr. Jamie Feusner, a UCLA assistant professor of psychiatry, and colleagues found that patients with the disorder have less brain activity when processing holistic visual elements that provide the “big picture,” regardless of whether that picture is a face or an object.
New scientific evidence challenges a popular conception that behaviors such as repetitive hand-washing, characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), are carried out in response to disturbing obsessive fears. The study found that in the case of OCD the behaviors themselves (the compulsions) might be the precursors to the disorder, and that obsessions may simply be the brain’s way of justifying these behaviors. The original study is available for free for an unknown length of time; check the end of this report for a download link.
A landmark study by scientists at Wayne State University published in the May 6, 2011, issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, the most prestigious journal in the field, has revealed a new way to distinguish children with major depressive disorder (MDD) from not only normal children, but also from children with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The publisher made the original journal article available for free for an undetermined amount of time; check the end of the report for a download link while available.
Scientists at the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research at The Rockefeller University, led by Paul Greengard, Ph.D., and Jennifer Warner-Schmidt, Ph.D., have shown that anti-inflammatory drugs, which include ibuprofen, aspirin, and naproxen, reduce the effectiveness of the most widely used class of antidepressant medications – the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, taken for depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety disorders.
Until now, it has been assumed that people with diseases like ADHD, Tourette syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder, and schizophrenia – all of whom characteristically report symptoms of ”brain clutter” – may suffer from anomalies in the brain’s prefrontal cortex. Damage to this brain region is often associated with failure to focus on relevant things, loss of inhibitions, impulsivity, and various kinds of inappropriate behavior.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is often diagnosed too late in children and adolescents. In the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, Susanne Walitza and her colleagues point out that appropriate early recognition and treatment can positively affect the course of the disease. The publisher made the original journal article available at no cost for unknown length of time; check the the end of this report for a download link.
