scholarly journals The Role of Antioxidants in the Management of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Baratzadeh ◽  
Sepideh Elyasi ◽  
Amir Hooshang Mohammadpour ◽  
Sofia Salari ◽  
Amirhossein Sahebkar

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic neuropsychiatric disorder that has a significant effect on the quality of life. The most effective treatment for OCD is the combination of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) with cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). However, several adverse effects have been linked with this usual pharmacotherapy, and it is unsuccessful in many patients. The exact pathophysiology of OCD is not completely known, though the role of oxidative stress in its pathogenesis has been proposed recently. This review presents an overview of animal and human studies of antioxidant treatment for OCD. The use of antioxidants against oxidative stress is a novel treatment for several neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. Among antioxidants, NAC was one of the most studied drugs on OCD, and it showed a significant improvement in OCD symptoms. Thus, antioxidants could be promising as an adjuvant treatment for OCD. However, a limited number of human studies are conducted on these agents, and for better judgment, human studies with a large sample size are necessary.

1998 ◽  
Vol 173 (S35) ◽  
pp. 13-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. G. Baumgarten ◽  
Z. Grozdanovic

Background Serotonin may play a role in the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) because of the anti-obsessional effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRJs).Method The literature is reviewed on knowledge of the role of serotonergic neurons in brain function, studies on monoamine metabolites in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), various stress neuropeptides, neuroendocrine and behavioural challenge after administration of direct and indirect serotomimetic compounds, and neuroanatomical data on brain circuits organising behaviour.Results In most of the OCD cases analysed, CSF 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid and homovanillic acid concentrations do not significantly differ from age-corrected controls. However, a relationship appears to exist between pre-treatment levels of these metabolites and clinical response to drugs acting on the serotonin transporter. Abnormalities in CSF arginine vasopressin, corticotropin-releasing hormone, oxytocin and somatostatin levels have been reported in OCD. Long-term treatment with high-doses of clomipramine, fluvoxamine, and fluoxetine tend to correct these neuropeptide abnormalities.Conclusions We hypothesise that continuous treatment with SSRJs alters serotonin turnover and neuropeptide expression patterns in OCD-entertaining functional forebrain/midbrain circuits.


CNS Spectrums ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (S3) ◽  
pp. 35-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fritz Hohagen

AbstractObsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has long been considered a treatment-refractory mental condition. Neither pharmacologic nor psychodynamic therapy has been proven to treat OCD effectively. Yet the prognosis for OCD has changed dramatically in recent years with the introduction of behavior therapy and the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Many studies have shown that behavior therapy, especially exposure with response prevention, and SSRIs reduce obsessive-compulsive symptoms significantly. Still, many unanswered questions—including the role of cognitive therapy in the treatment of OCD, exposure therapy vs multimodal behavioral therapy, individual versus group therapy, outcome predictors in adults, adolescents, and children, and the role of combination treatment using an SSRI and cognitive-behavioral therapy—remain. This article will explore these issues as well as suggest directions for further research into OCD.


2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (06) ◽  
pp. 229-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Přemysl Vlček ◽  
Jakub Polák ◽  
Martin Brunovský ◽  
Jiří Horáček

AbstractObsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic psychiatric illness and 1 of the most common anxiety disorders with the prevalence of 3%. Although its pathogenesis remains unclear, the traditional model focused on alternations in the serotonin system. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors provide the most effective treatment; however, as much as 40–60% of patients do not respond to antidepressants therapy. Thus, attention has shifted towards other neurotransmitter systems and related neuroanatomical structures. Recently, there is extensive evidence showing a key role of glutamate pathways abnormalities within the cortico-striatal-thalamo-cortical circuitry and temporal lobes in OCD pathogenesis. In this review, we link together the existent neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, and neuropsychological evidence to argue for potential benefits of adjuvant treatment with glutamatergic agents, especially memantine. By a targeted de-excitation effect on the glutamatergic system in the temporal lobes and connected brain regions, memantine might further alleviate OCD symptoms. This effect should be even more pronounced in certain subtypes of patients with specific cognitive deficits and maladaptive compensatory memory processes (e.g., checkers).


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Hadi ◽  
Shayan Kashefinejad ◽  
Leila Kamalzadeh ◽  
Saba Hoobehfekr ◽  
Mohammadreza Shalbafan

Abstract Background Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is among the most disabling neuropsychiatric conditions characterized by the presence of repetitive intrusive thoughts, impulses, or images (obsessions) and/or ritualized mental or physical acts (compulsions). Serotonergic medications, particularly Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), are the first-line treatments for patients with OCD. Recently, dysregulation of glutamatergic system has been proposed to be involved in the etiology of OCD. We designed this systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate clinical efficacy of glutamatergic medications in patients with OCD, according to the guidelines of Cochrane collaboration. Method We searched Medline, Scopus, and Cochrane library without applying any language filter. Two of the authors independently reviewed search results for irrelevant and duplicate studies and extracted data and assessed methodological quality of the studies. We transformed data into a common rubric and calculated a weighted treatment effect across studies using Review Manager. Results We found 476 references in 3 databases, and after exclusion of irrelevant and duplicate studies, 17 studies with total number of 759 patients with OCD were included. In the present review we found evidence for several drugs such as memantine, N-acetylcysteine (NAC), Minocycline, L-carnosine and riluzole. Glutamaterigic drug plus SSRIs were superior to SSRI+ Placebo with regard to Y-BOCS scale [standardized mean difference (SMD = − 3.81 95% CI = − 4.4, − 3.23). Conclusion Augmentation of glutamatergic medications with SSRIs are beneficial in obsessive-compulsive patients, no harmful significant differences in any safety outcome were found between the groups.


2013 ◽  
Vol 206 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brittany B. Kugler ◽  
Adam B. Lewin ◽  
Vicky Phares ◽  
Gary R. Geffken ◽  
Tanya K. Murphy ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-25
Author(s):  
Karolina Diallo

Pupil with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Over the past twenty years childhood OCD has received more attention than any other anxiety disorder that occurs in the childhood. The increasing interest and research in this area have led to increasing number of diagnoses of OCD in children and adolescents, which affects both specialists and teachers. Depending on the severity of symptoms OCD has a detrimental effect upon child's school performance, which can lead almost to the impossibility to concentrate on school and associated duties. This article is devoted to the obsessive-compulsive disorder and its specifics in children, focusing on the impact of this disorder on behaviour, experience and performance of the child in the school environment. It mentions how important is the role of the teacher in whose class the pupil with this diagnosis is and it points out that it is necessary to increase teachers' competence to identify children with OCD symptoms, to take the disease into the account, to adapt the course of teaching and to introduce such measures that could help children reduce the anxiety and maintain (or increase) the school performance within and in accordance with the school regulations and curriculum.


CNS Spectrums ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (S4) ◽  
pp. 4-4
Author(s):  
Eric Hollander ◽  
Joseph Zohar ◽  
Donatella Marazziti

The Fourth International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Conference (IOCDC) was held February 10–12, 2000, on the beautiful island of St. Thomas. The IOCDC is an annual meeting which brings together the world's leading experts in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and related disorders in a small workshop setting to present recent research advances, discuss gaps in our current knowledge, and plan or international approaches that address these knowledge gaps. The IOCDC meetings have been held on islands on both sides of the Atlantic—Capri, Guadeloupe, Madeira, and now St. Thomas.The International Organizing Committee consists of Eric Hollander, MD (USA), Joseph Zohar, MD (Israel), and Donatella Marazziti, MD (Italy). The proceedings are generously supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Solvay Pharmaceuticals, and we would like to acknowledge the very important contributions of Chantal Vekens and Mary Blangiardo of Solvay. Also, an mportant part of the success of these meetings stems from the very active role of the chairpersons and cochairpersons of the workshops who lead the discussions, who synthesize the future directions and prepare the manuscripts that result from these discussions that appear in this academic supplement.The meeting led off with a state-of-the-art plenary address by Mark George, MD (USA), describing how new methods of brain stimulation are improving research and therapy in OCD and promise to revolutionize neuropsychiatric research and herapy over the next decade. He describes how transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is used to test the circuits in OCD and test electrophysiologic evaluations of cortical inhibition n OCD. Newer techniques that are less invasive than ablative surgery and appear promising in OCD therapy include vagus nerve stimulation and deep brain stimulation.


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