Biological explanations and treatment of OCD

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  • The biological approach to OCD
    • Explanations of OCD
      • Neural
        • Poor levels of serotonin are thought to be a cause of OCD as there is a reduction of brain function.
          • Poor decision making may be due to brain structures functioning abnormally such as parahippocampal gurus and frontal lobes
      • Genetic
        • Ther is a genetic vulnerability to OCD found in studies which find high concordance rates of OCD between MZ twins compared to DZ twins.
          • OCD is polygenic and aetiologically heterogeneous
          • Specific candidate genes may cause OCD to develop
    • Evaluating the explanations of OCD
      • Strengths
        • G: good supporting evidence from twin studies
        • N: supporting evidence based on symptoms of OCD appearing in neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s
      • Weaknesses
        • N: should not assume the role of neural mechanisms in OCD without proof
        • G: environmentalfactors such as trauma as found by Cromer et al showed OCD to have environmentalorigins as well as genetic disposition
          • Diathesis-stress model
        • N: unclear which neural mechanisms are involved in OCD
        • G: too many candidate genes have been tied to OCD which limits the predictive value
    • Evaluating the treatments of OCD
      • Drugs are cost effective
      • Effective at tackling the symptoms of OCD as proven by Soomro
        • More effective than placebo drugs , especially when combined with CBT
      • There is unreliable evidence for drug treatments as the data could be biased  due to companies not reporting all findings, just favourable ones
      • OCD may not have a solely biological origin and therefore drugs would not work on these people
      • Drugs can have serious side effects especially for long term use
    • Drugs therapies as a biological treatment of OCD
      • SSRIs
        • Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor creates a higher level of serotonin in the synapses which reduces the negative emotional effects of OCD
          • May be combined with talking therapies like CBT to increase the effectiveness
      • Alternative medication to SSRIs
        • Tricyclics are used when people don’t respond well to SSRI drugs, but they have worse side effects
        • SNRIs work on serotonin and another neurotransmitter called noradrenaline . This is a newer drug and works for people that don’t respond to SSRIs

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