Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Objective: Recent studies on treating obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have investigated
noninvasive brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)
to improve patients’ impaired emotion and cognition. However, such experiments have yielded
mixed results, especially with respect to cognition. This study aimed to investigate whether
anodal and cathodal tDCS applied over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) would
improve decision making and reduce obsession symptoms in patients with OCD.
Methods: the current study is analysis of variance. In this regard, 20 patients with obsessive
compulsive disorder (n=20) were randomly assigned to receive either experimental (active) or
control (sham) tDCS. To measure cognitive functions, the participants underwent a series of
decision making neuropsychological tasks; to measure obsession symptoms, the Yale-brown
obsessive compulsive and Beck anxiety scale (BAI) were used. The parameters of active
tDCS included administration of 2 mA for 20 minutes per day for 15 consecutive days, anode
electrode over the right DLPFC (F4), and cathode electrode over the left DLPFC (F3) region.
Results: After 10 sessions of anodal and cathodal tDCS, patients showed significant
improvement in decision making tasks. The same results were observed for obsession
symptoms.
Conclusion: The data were analyzed by SPSS 18.0.0 software, using analysis of variance
methods.This study demonstrated that anodal tDCS over left DLPFC, concurrent with cathodal
tDCS over right DLPFC, improved cognitive impairment and reduced obsession symptoms in
patients with OCD.

Some but not all models of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) emphasize the role of dysfunctional beliefs in the etiology and maintenance of this disorder. Clinical observations suggest that some OCD patients have prominent dysfunctional beliefs associated with their obsessions and compulsions, while other patients do not show this pattern. It is possible that dysfunctional beliefs play a role in only a

We present the results of a systematic review on the effectiveness of pharmacological treatments for children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Sixty-four studies fulfilled the selection criteria, being the most of them focused in SSRI and Clomipramine. The trials on augmentation strategies and third line monotherapies are scarce, being the majority open-trials and case series. Similarly, studies on combined treatment (psychological and pharmacological) are few; furthermore this is a relevant future research line. It is also remarkable the lack of quasi-experimental and experimental comparison studies and the long-term follow-up measures.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate gender-related sociodemographic and clinical differences among Turkish patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). A total of 169 patients diagnosed with OCD by DSM-III-R or DSM-IV criteria were included in this study. Male (n ‫؍‬ 73) and female (n ‫؍‬ 96) OCD patients were compared with respect to the demographic variables and the scores obtained from the Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HRSA), the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) and the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS). We found a significantly earlier age at onset in male patients. No significant difference in terms of HARS, HDRS, and Y-BOCS scores was detected between the two groups. We observed a significantly higher frequency of contamination obsessions in females, and that of agression and sexual obsessions in males. There was no significant difference in terms of the frequency of compulsions between the two groups. We also found that compulsion severity on obsessions/compulsions was higher in females and comorbidity rates of social phobia and schizophrenia were higher in males. Considering our results in combination with those of other studies, similarities rather than differences in gender-related sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of OCD patients across different populations seem to be present.

This study examined the effect of the You Can Do It! Education (YCDI) cognitive-behavioural intervention program on the emotional resilience of students in grades 4 to 6 who were identified with achievement, behavioural, social and/or emotional challenges. 61 students were randomly assigned to either small groups receiving an eight week YCDI cognitivebehavioural intervention or small groups receiving “eclectic” counselling other than cognitivebehavioural. Results indicated a positive impact of the YCDI program on the resilience items contained in the ACER Social and Emotional Well-Being Surveys (student self-report; teacher survey) with no positive impact found for students receiving “eclectic” counselling. Results are discussed in terms of the need for social and emotional learning programs that explicitly teach emotional resilience skills. Children of all ages face situations on a daily basis that can evoke negative feelings of anger, anxiety and sadness. The failure to develop ag...

h i g h l i g h t s • Stereotypy is time-consuming and effective for assessing severity and drug response. • Chronic, but not sub-chronic treatment with escitalopram attenuates stereotypy. • HS deer mice present with significantly lower striatal SERT density vs. controls.

Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder can be expressed as four potentially overlapping obsessivecompulsive symptom (OCS) dimensions (OCSD) ("symmetry/ordering", "contamination/cleaning", "aggressive/sexual/religious" and "collecting/hoarding"). In clinical samples, some dimensions are more familial and associated with increased psychiatric comorbidity and malfunctioning. However, data concerning OCS and OCSD are scarce in non-clinical samples, particularly among children. The present study aims to estimate: (1) the prevalence and sex/age distribution of OCS/OCSD in a community-based sample of schoolchildren; (2) the association between OCS and additional clinical factors; and (3) the degree of familial aggregation of OCS/OCSD. Methods: OCS and OCSD were evaluated in 9937 Brazilian school-children (6e12 years-old) and their biological relatives using the Family History Screen. Data analyses included gradient estimated equations and post-hoc tests. Results: We included data on 9937 index-children, 3305 siblings (13e18 years-old), and 16,218 parents. Biological mothers were the informants in 87.6% of the interviews. OCS were present in 14.7% of the index-children; 15.6% of their siblings; 34.6% of their mothers and 12.1% of their fathers. The prevalence of OCS and each of the OCSD gradually increased from ages 6 to 12 years. Overall, OCS in children were associated with the presence of other psychiatric symptoms, as well as behavioral/school impairment. OCS and each of the four OCSD aggregated significantly within families. Conclusions: OCS are prevalent and associated with psychiatric symptoms and clinical impairment among school-aged children. OCSD aggregate within families in a dimension-specific fashion. These findings suggest a natural continuum between OCS and OCD with regard to their dimensional character.

The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of personality disorders in a group of outpatients with bipolar I disorder. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders (SCID-II) was administered to 90 bipolar outpatients who met the DSM-III-R criteria and 58 control subjects. Of the patients and controls, 47.7% and 15.5%, respectively, had at least one personality disorder. At least one personality disorder in clusters A, B, and C and obsessivecompulsive, paranoid, histrionic, and borderline personality disorders were significantly more prevalent in bipolars. Suicide attempts were more frequent in patients with a history of personality disorder.

Some patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) exhibit an unsatisfactory reduction in symptom severity despite being treated with all the available therapeutic alternatives. The clinical variables associated with treatment-refractoriness in OCD are inconsistently described in the literature. Methods: To investigate factors associated with treatment-refractoriness of patients with OCD, we conducted a case-control study, comparing 23 patients with treatment-refractory OCD to 26 patients with treatment-responding OCD. Results: The factors associated with refractoriness of OCD were higher severity of symptoms since the onset of OCD (p < 0.001), chronic course (p = 0.003), lack of a partner (p = 0.037), unemployment (p = 0.025), low economic status (p = 0.015), presence of obsessive-compulsive symptoms of sexual/religious content (p = 0.043), and higher scores on family accommodation (p < 0.001). Only the three latter variables remained significantly associated with treatment-refractoriness after regression analyses. Limitations: small sample size, the biases and drawbacks inherent to a case-control study, and the inclusion criteria used to define the study groups may have limited the generalisation of the results. Conclusion: A major strength of this study is the systematic and structured evaluation of a vast array of variables related to the clinical expression of OCD, including epigenetic factors and ratings derived from instruments evaluating family accommodation. The presence of sexual/religious symptoms, low economic status and high modification on family function due to OCD were independently associated with treatment-refractoriness. Future longitudinal studies are warranted to verify if these variables represent predictive factors of treatment non-response.

The prefrontal cortex in rats can be distinguished anatomically from other frontal cortical areas both in terms of cytoarchitectonic characteristics and neural connectivity, and it can be further subdivided into subterritories on the basis of such criteria. Functionally, the prefrontal cortex of rats has been implicated in working memory, attention, response initiation and management of autonomic control and emotion. In humans, dysfunction of prefrontal cortical areas with which the medial prefrontal cortex of the rat is most likely comparable is related to psychopathology including schizophrenia, sociopathy, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and drug abuse. Recent literature points to the relevance of conducting a functional analysis of prefrontal subregions and supports the idea that the area of the medial prefrontal cortex in rats is characterized by its own functional heterogeneity, which may be related to neuroanatomical and neurochemical dissociations. The present review covers recent findings with the intent of correlating these distinct functional differences in the dorso-ventral axis of the rat medial prefrontal cortex with anatomical and neurochemical patterns. q

Schizophrenia patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may be a subgroup of schizophrenia, and OCD patients with poor insight may show psychotic-like symptoms. The aim of this work is to compare the neuropsychological performance of those patients with ...

One additional concept raised by the investigators' observations is that multiple lesions along the limbic circuit may provide better response rates than single albeit bilateral lesions. This concept was first proposed by Sir Desmond Kelley when he devised the limbic leukotomy consisting of combined anterior cingulate and subcaudate tractotomy lesions. Whether multiple lesions offer significantly better success rates clinically remains unanswered. Nonetheless, one of the most important considerations of any ablative surgery for psychiatric disorders is the ability to impart clinical benefit with minimal or few side effects. In my experience, anterior cingulotomy is a very safe procedure with few if any neuropsychological consequences. Anterior capsulotomy is also very safe but carries a slightly higher risk of neurocognitive and behavioral side effects. One might expect that by combining these two lesion procedures, the side effects might be more than simply additive, but this was not the case in this series. Unfortunately, the authors did not apply a modern or comprehensive assessment of significant adverse effects along with their outcome data. This would require a semi-structured SAFTEE and detailed neuropsychological testing at defined follow-up visits which is very costly and labor intensive and is almost never accomplished in standard clinical series. Nevertheless, with this publication, the authors have provided another piece of evidence that relatively small stereotactic lesions within the limbic system circuitry can impart significant improvement in selected patients with severe and intractable OCD.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) constitutes a major source of psychiatric morbidity and disability. This study examines new onset of obsessions and compulsions (OCS) within 1 year of severe pediatric TBI. Eighty children and adolescents ages 6-18 years with severe TBI were interviewed by a child psychiatrist using the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents-Revised to diagnose OCS and comorbidities. A brain magnetic resonance imaging used a 1.5 T scanner 3 months after injury with a T1weighted spoiled gradient-recalled-echo sequence to provide high spatial resolution and T1-and T2 * -contrast sensitivity. Race, sex, socioeconomic status, psychosocial adversity, and injury severity were used to predict new onset OCS. Psychiatric comorbidities and brain lesion volumes in orbitofrontal, mesial prefrontal, temporal lobe, basal ganglia, and thalamus were examined in relation to new onset OCS. Twenty-one children (21/72, 29.2%) had OCS after TBI. Most common were worries about disease, cleanliness, and inappropriate actions as well as excessive cleaning, doing things a certain way and ordering. Anxiety disorders, mania, dysthymia, depressive symptoms, and posttraumatic stress disorder were significantly associated with new onset OCS. Injury severity was not associated with new onset OCS. Greater psychosocial adversity (P 5 0.009), and being female (P 5 0.005) were associated with OCS while mesial prefrontal and temporal lobe lesions were associated with new onset obsessions (Po0.05). OCS are common after severe pediatric TBI and are associated with greater comorbidities. New onset obsessions are associated with female sex, psychosocial adversity, and mesial prefrontal and temporal lesions.

Outcome of teenage-onset anorexia nervosa in a Swedish community-based sample s Abstract In a prospective longterm outcome study of a representative sample of teenage-onset anorexia nervosa (AN), 51 individuals with AN, recruited after community screening, were contrasted with 51 matched comparison cases at a mean age of 24 years (10 years

The present paper discusses theoretical and methodological issues involved in the processes of change in cognitive-behavioural treatment (CBT) of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Treatment outcome studies showed that CBT is effective in reducing obsessivecompulsive symptoms. However, why and how CBT works cannot be corroborated by comparing pre-and post-assessment. Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in theory driven process studies. By showing patterns of change over time, process studies can contribute to our insight into the actual mechanisms of change during treatment. We review process research in the fi eld of OCD and discuss methodological issues involved in process studies for this particular disorder. It is concluded that studying the processes of change harbours promising possibilities for bridging the gap between theory and clinical practice.

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by multiple tics and associated with co-morbid behavioral problems (TS-plus). We investigated the usefulness of self-report versus parent- and teacher-report instruments in assisting the specialist assessment of TS-plus in a child/adolescent population. Twenty-three patients diagnosed with TS (19 males; age 13.9 ± 3.7 years) and 69 matched healthy controls participated in this study. All recruited participants completed a standardized psychometric battery, including the Children&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s Depression Inventory (CDI), the Self Administrated Psychiatric Scales for Children and Adolescents (SAFA) and the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI). Parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Conners&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; Parent Rating Scales-Revised (CPRS-R). Participants&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; teachers completed the Conners&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; Teacher Rating Scales-Revised (CTRS-R). Results were compared with similar data obtained from controls. Nineteen patients (82.6%) fulfilled DSM-IV-TR criteria for at least one co-morbid condition: obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD, n = 8; 34.8%); attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, n = 6; 26.1%); OCD + ADHD (n = 5; 21.7%). Scores on self-report instruments failed to show any significant differences between TS and controls. Most subscores of the CPRS-R, CTRS-R, and CBCL were significantly higher for the TS group than controls. The TS + OCD subgroup scored significantly higher than the TS-OCD subgroup on the CBCL-Externalizing, Anxious/Depressed and Obsessive-Compulsive subscales. Self-report instruments appear to have limited usefulness in assisting the assessment of the behavioral spectrum of young patients with TS. However, proxy-rated instruments differentiate TS populations from healthy subjects, and the CBCL can add relevant information to the clinical diagnosis of co-morbid OCD.

The present study compares the efficacy of 8 different psychological treatments for specific phobia, or 5 for obsessivecompulsive disorder, respectively, in a meta-analysis of 32 studies that included 80 treatment interventions. Pre-post effect sizes were calculated for 5 clinical outcome variables: main symptoms, general anxiety, depression, impairment and general psychopathology. Long-term outcome has been investigated up to 2 years past interventions. For specific phobia, most psychological interventions namely desensitization, exposure, applied relaxation, applied tension and cognitive therapy, yielded high effect sizes (ES) between 1.42 and 2.06 for main symptoms. Long-term follow-ups have been investigated for exposure and applied relaxation and tension for which treatment gains were stable up to 1 year past interventions. In part, the analyzed treatments have proven their efficacy only for a subgroup of specific phobias: desensitization has been investigated mainly in the treatment of dental phobia, applied tension in the treatment of blood-and injection phobia. In the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, cognitive-behavioral therapy yielded the highest ES for main symptoms (ES = 1.84). The ES for exposure was lower (ES = 1.44), but did not differ statistically from the effect of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Treatment gains for both were maintained up to 2 years past interventions.

Traditionally, the dried flower of Echium amoenum (Boraginaceae) has been used in Iran as an anxiolytic and mood enhancer. This study investigated the efficacy and safety of an aqueous extract of E. amoenum in treatment of obsessive–compulsive disorder. Forty-four patients ...

Anxiety disorders represent one of the most common categories of psychopathology in children and adolescents. Apart from separation anxiety disorder, a well recognized problem of childhood, it is now widely accepted that generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, specific phobia, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and panic disorder all occur during the childhood and adolescent years. Numerous studies examining the

This article argues that traditional models of diagnosis are incomplete in their reliance on a models of certainty that are no longer tenable in a postmodern world. Further, it argues that the current form of diagnosis, as applied to psychiatric and affective disorders, reduces patient agency and reinscribes the effects of biopower.

Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is often associated with significant psychiatric comorbidity. Comorbid disorders include mood and anxiety disorders as well as obsessivecompulsive spectrum disorders (OCSDs). This paper aims to investigate comorbidity of DSM Axis Idisorders, including OCSDs, in patients with OCD from 10 centers affiliated with the International

j Abstract Background Previous studies indicate that most individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have comorbid personality disorders (PDs), particularly from the anxious cluster. However, the nature and strength of this association remains unclear, as the majority of previous studies have relied heavily on clinical populations. We analysed the prevalence of screen positive personality disorder in a representative sample of adults with OCD living in private households in the UK. Methods A secondary analysis of data from the 2000 British National Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity. The prevalence of PD, as determined by the SCID-II questionnaire, was compared in participants with OCD, with other neuroses and non-neurotic controls. Within the OCD group we also analysed possible differences relating to sex and subtypes of the disorder. Results The prevalence of any screen positive PD in the OCD group (N = 108) was 74%, significantly greater than in both control groups. The most common screen positive categories were paranoid, obsessive-compulsive, avoidant, schizoid and schizotypal. Compared to participants with other neuroses, OCD cases were more likely to screen positively for paranoid, avoidant, schizotypal, dependent and narcissistic PDs. Men with OCD were more likely to screen positively for PDs in general, cluster A PDs, antisocial, obsessive-compulsive and narcissistic categories. The presence of comorbid neuroses in people with OCD had no significant effect on the prevalence of PD. Conclusions Personality pathology is highly prevalent among people with OCD who are living in the community and should be routinely assessed, as it may affect help-seeking behaviour and response to treatment. SPPE 118

Objectives. The abnormal processing of emotional stimuli is common to a variety of psychiatric disorders. Specifi cally, patients with prominent anxiety symptoms generally overreact to emotional cues, which has been linked to increased amygdala activation. However, in OCD, enhanced responses are predominantly obtained using disease-specifi c stimuli and preferentially involve frontostriatal systems. Methods. We assessed 21 OCD patients and 21 healthy controls with fMRI during an emotional face-processing paradigm involving active response generation to test for alterations in both brain activation and task-induced functional connectivity of the frontal cortex, the amygdala and the fusiform face area. Results. OCD patients showed signifi cantly greater activation of " face-processing " regions including the amygdala, fusiform gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The reciprocal connectivity between face-processing regions was enhanced in OCD. Importantly, we detected signifi cant correlations between patients ' clinical symptom severity and both task-related region activation and network functional connectivity. Conclusions. The results suggest that OCD patients may show enhanced brain responsiveness during emotional face-processing when tasks involve active response generation. Our fi ndings diverge from previously described alterations in anxiety disorders, as patients showed enhanced amygdala-prefrontal connectivity as opposed to negative reciprocal interaction. This pattern would appear to be disorder-specifi c and was signifi cantly related to obsessive-compulsive symptom severity.

According to cognitive models, obsessive compulsive symptoms result from catastrophic misinterpretations of commonly occurring intrusive experiences and the use of counterproductive strategies to manage them. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) related beliefs such as inflated responsibility, importance of thoughts and perfectionism increases the likelihood of such misinterpretations. Consistent with a growing body of literature supporting the usefulness of mobile delivered technologies in fostering cognitive behavior change, the present study assessed the effectiveness of a novel cognitive training exercise designed to challenge OCD-related beliefs. This mobile app training exercise consists of users having to pull statements challenging OCD beliefs towards themselves (downwards) and to throw away (push upwards) contra-productive self-statements. 36 third-year BA students started the trial. Twenty completed pre and post measures of OCD-beliefs, mood and OCD symptoms including relat...

Few treatment outcome studies of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) have employed Behavioral Avoidance Tests (BATs) to assess changes in symptomatology, probably because of the difficulty of constructing such tests for a disorder which has widely varying symptoms. The few studies that have examined the psychometric properties of BATs for OCD have found mixed evidence for validity but good treatment sensitivity. The present study presents psychometric findings for a multi-step/ multi-task BAT that assessed percentage of steps completed, subjective anxiety, global avoidance, and rituals. This measure was used with 50 clients diagnosed with OCD whose symptoms varied widely. The BAT demonstrated good convergent and divergent validity, as well as treatment sensitivity according to effect size calculations. A composite score combining steps, anxiety level, avoidance and rituals also performed well in psychometric tests. Strategies to reduce the complexity of scoring are presented, along with examples of several BAT tasks to enable researchers to employ this behavioral measure.

Of the 79 subjects who initially volunteered to participate in the study, 5 dropped out prior to being assigned to a group, and 3 dropped out, 1 from each group, after assignment to a group. One client was dropped because of a refusal to be weighed. Data from 2 other subjects were eliminated (1 from the Control and 2 from the SC group) because it was determined statistically that they were outliers by using the maximum normal residual test (Snedecor & Cochran, 1980). 'The EOC questionnaire, the S.U.D. food scale, and the FTM may be obtained by request from F.

Background: The prevalence, sociodemographic aspects, and clinical features of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have been previously addressed in primarily relatively small samples. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional demographic and clinical assessment of 901 OCD patients participating in the Brazilian Research Consortium on Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders. We used the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders; Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale; Dimensional Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DY-BOCS); Brown Assessment of Beliefs Scale; Clinical Global Impression Scale; and Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. Results: The lifetime prevalence of BDD was 12.1%. The individuals with comorbid BDD (OCD-BDD; n = 109) were younger than were those without it. In addition, the proportions of single and unemployed patients were greater in the OCD-BDD group. This group of patients also showed higher rates of suicidal behaviors; mood, anxiety, and eating disorders; hypochondriasis; skin picking; Tourette syndrome; and symptoms of the sexual/religious, aggressive, and miscellaneous dimensions. Furthermore, OCD-BDD patients had an earlier onset of OC symptoms; greater severity of OCD, depression, and anxiety symptoms; and poorer insight. After logistic regression, the following features were associated with OCD-BDD:

Con el objetivo de recoger el estado actual de la psicocirugía en España y la opinión de los neurocirujanos hacia la misma, se diseñó una encuesta dirigida a todos los neurocirujanos en activo en nuestro país. Respondió al menos un neurocirujano de cada uno los 74 centros neuroquirúrgicos existentes en España (tasa de respuesta=100%). Únicamente 6 neurocirujanos realizaron intervenciones de psicocirugía. En total, se practicaron 111 intervenciones psicoquirúrgicas entre 1999 y 2003. El 75,7% de las mismas se llevó a cabo en centros privados. La indicación más frecuente ha sido el trastorno obsesivo-compulsivo, y la técnica más frecuente la capsulotomía anterior, aunque existe diversidad de indicaciones y técnicas entre los diversos neurocirujanos que la practican. Los que no realizan psicocirugía aducen como motivos la falta de remisión de pacientes (54,4%) y la propia inexperiencia (36,8%). La sospecha de una posible falta de eficacia o los posibles efectos adversos no son planteados frecuentemente. La posibilidad del empleo de la estimulación cerebral profunda en la psicocirugía, junto con la experiencia de algunos neurocirujanos y la opinión favorable del resto, puede dar lugar en el futuro a un mayor número de intervenciones en nuestro país.

Aerobic exercise can acutely influence anxious and depressive mood in both clinical and nonclinical populations. However, there are no existing studies that have examined the acute effect of exercise on mood, anxiety, obsessions, and compulsions in patients with OCD. The primary aim of this study was to examine acute changes in these symptoms after engaging in single exercise sessions during a 12-week exercise intervention for 15 (53% female; mean age = 41.9 years) patients with OCD. Participants reported reductions in negative mood, anxiety, and OCD symptoms at the end of each exercise session relative to the beginning. Changes in the magnitude of the effect of exercise in reducing negative mood and anxiety remained fairly stable while levels of self-reported obsessions and compulsions decreased over the duration of the intervention. Results of this study point toward the promising effect of exercise for acute symptom reduction in patients with OCD. ß

Background: A meta-analysis was conducted to identify the proportions of comorbid personality disorders (PD) in mood disorders. Methods: We found 122 empirical papers published in the period 1980-2010 on participants having mood disorders in addition to a comorbid PD. Mood disorders were classified as bipolar disorders (BD), major depressive disorders (MDD) and dysthymic disorders (DYS). Several moderators were coded as well.

This study evaluated acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for scrupulosity-based obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Five adults were treated with eight sessions of ACT, without in-session exposure, in a multiple baseline across participants design. Daily monitoring of compulsions and avoided valued activities were tracked throughout the study. The Obsessive Compulsive Inventory-Revised, Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity, Beck Depression Inventory-II, Quality of Life Scale, Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire, and the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II were completed at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up. The Treatment Evaluation Inventory was completed at posttreatment. Average daily compulsions reduced as follows: pretreatment = 25.0, posttreatment = 5.6, and follow-up = 4.3. Average daily avoided valued activities reduced as follows: pretreatment = 6.0, posttreatment = 0.7, and follow-up = 0.5. Other measures showed similar patterns. Religious faith only slightly declined: 4% at posttreatment and 7% at follow-up. Treatment acceptability was high.

The etiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) remains unknown, although it is thought to involve an interaction of genetic and environmental factors. This study aimed to identify prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal risk factors in OCD. Methods: We compared retrospectively 68 OCD patients to 70 control subjects based on responses given on a standardized questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to evaluate environmental factors, with a special focus on gestation, labor, birth, and early infancy aspects. Results: The group of OCD patients had risk factors with greater frequency than the control group. Notable among the significant findings (p Յ 0.001) were edema of the hands, feet, or face and excessive weight gain during gestation; hyperemesis gravidarum; prolonged labor; preterm birth; and jaundice. When socioeconomic class was used as a covariable in the logistic regression analysis, prolonged labor and edema during pregnancy remained statistically significant. Conclusions: Some early risk factors may be associated with the expression of OCD later in life such as edema during pregnancy and prolonged labor. If our findings are confirmed in future studies, greater attention should be given to such factors in predisposed individuals, especially in prenatal care and delivery.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a disabling psychopathology. The mainstay of treatment includes cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and medication management. However, individual suffering, functional impairments as well as the direct and indirect costs associated with the disease remain substantial. New treatment programmes are necessary and the brief strategic therapy (BST) has recently shown encouraging results in clinical practice but no quantitative study has as yet been conducted. The clinical effectiveness of the OCD-specific BST protocol will be evaluated in a one-group observational study. Participants will be sequentially recruited from a state community psychotherapy clinic in Dublin, Ireland. Outcome measures will be the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Data will be collected at baseline, at treatment termination and at 3 month follow-up. The statistical significance of the post-treatment effect will be ...

Striving for enhancing athletic performance many sportsmen undergo rigid dietary habits, which could lead to eating disorders (EDs) or Orthorexia Nervosa (ON), a psychopathological condition characterized by the obsession for high quality food. The aim of the study was to examine the occurrence of ON in athletes and to verify the relationship between ON and EDs. Five-hundredseventy-seven athletes and 217 matched controls were administered the following tests: ORTO-15, Eating Attitude Test 26 (EAT-26), Body Uneasiness Test (BUT) and Yale-Brown-Corner Eating Disorder Scale (YBC-EDS). High positivity to ORTO-15 (28%) and EAT-26 (14%) emerged in athletes, whereas a high rate of BUT positivity was evident among controls (21%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that independent predictors of ON are previous dieting, age, positivity to YBC-EDS, positivity to EAT-26, competition level, and number of YBC-EDS preoccupations and rituals. Sharing many features with both EDs and Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum, ON represents a crossroad between these pathologic conditions and might compromise the health state of an athlete. Therefore, coaches should consider it important to detect symptoms of EDs and ON in their athletes.