ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: A previous pilot study of only posterior brain regions found lower white-matter volume in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder than in normal control subjects. We used new cohorts of patients and matched normal control subjects to study whole-brain volume differences between these groups with magnetic resonance imaging-based morphometry. METHODS: Ten female patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and 10 female control subjects, matched for handedness, age, weight, education, and verbal IQ, underwent magnetic resonance imaging with a 3-dimensional volumetric protocol. Scans were blindly normalized and segmented by means of well-characterized semiautomated intensity contour mapping and differential intensity contour algorithms. Brain structures investigated included the cerebral hemispheres, cerebral cortex, diencephalon, caudate, putamen, globus pallidus, hippocampus amygdala, third and fourth ventricles, corpus callosum, operculum, cerebellum, and brain stem. Anterior to posterior neocortical regions, including precallosum, anterior pericallosum, posterior pericallosum, and retrocallosum, with adjacent white matter were also measured. Volumes found different between groups were correlated with Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale score and Rey-Osterieth Complex Figure Test measures. RESULTS: Confirming results of our earlier pilot study and expanding the findings to the whole brain, patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder had significantly less total white matter but, in addition, significantly greater total cortex and opercular volumes. Severity of obsessive-compulsive disorder and nonverbal immediate memory correlated with opercular volume. CONCLUSIONS: Replication of volumetric white-matter differences suggests a widely distributed structural brain abnormality in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Whereas determining the etiogenesis may require research at a microscopic level, understanding its functional significance can be further explored via functional neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies.
Subject(s)
Brain/anatomy & histology , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/diagnosis , Adult , Caudate Nucleus/anatomy & histology , Corpus Callosum/anatomy & histology , Female , Functional Laterality , Humans , Neuropsychological Tests , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Severity of Illness IndexABSTRACT
The authors present a summary scale for assessing the percentage of patients in a large longitudinal study of panic disorder who received proven effective psychopharmacologic treatment. Such a scale provides a means for assessing and comparing somatic treatments of panic disorder across medication classes. The antipanic therapy levels were applied to data on medication treatment received by 492 patients participating in a naturalistic study and reflect psychopharmacologic treatment prescribed in 11 academic centers. Results show that among patients treated by psychiatrists at major teaching hospitals only 54% of the most symptomatic groups received optimal pharmacologic treatment. Among less symptomatic patients, who nonetheless met full criteria for panic disorder with or without agoraphobia, only 43% received maximal therapy.
Subject(s)
Anti-Anxiety Agents/therapeutic use , Panic Disorder/drug therapy , Adult , Female , Hospitals, Teaching , Humans , Male , Massachusetts , Middle Aged , Psychiatric Status Rating ScalesABSTRACT
This study used visual and auditory evoked potentials (VEP and AEP) to study low-level sensory processing in a group of 15 unmedicated subjects with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and 30 age-matched, gender-matched, and handedness-matched normal controls. EPs were recorded to flash (VEP) and binaural click (AEP) stimulation. OCD subjects were found to have significantly shorter latencies on N1 and P2 of the AEP, and no differences were found in the VEP. Results indicate abnormal information processing states in OCD during low-level auditory processing, but not during low-level visual processing. Neural generators of the VEP and AEP are briefly reviewed and results are discussed in relation to current neurobiological models of OCD.
Subject(s)
Evoked Potentials, Auditory , Evoked Potentials, Visual , Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/psychology , Perceptual Disorders/diagnosis , Perceptual Disorders/etiology , Acoustic Stimulation , Adult , Brain/physiopathology , Electric Stimulation , Electroencephalography , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/physiopathology , Perceptual Disorders/physiopathologyABSTRACT
Data concerning 331 subjects participating in a longitudinal study on anxiety disorders were collected over the first 6 months of the study. Preliminary analyses of somatic treatment according to diagnoses and study site were conducted. The comorbidity of one anxiety disorder with other DSM-III-R diagnoses and other types of anxiety disorders was extensive. Patients with panic disorder received significantly more treatment with a benzodiazepine than patients without panic disorder. Fewer than five percent of the sample were treated with a monoamine oxidase inhibitor. Comorbid depression increased the likelihood of treatment with a newer non-MAOI (non-monoamine oxidase inhibitor), nontricyclic antidepressant. Results suggest a strong effect of treatment site on the pharmacotherapy offered.
