Journal of Psychiatric Research

BackgroundNeuropsychological deficits are common in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and may influence functional and treatment outcomes. Only a few studies have effectively targeted these deficits, with most failing to show broad transfer of training. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of an integrated cognitive control training (ICCT) program on neuropsychological functioning in OCD patients and assess related changes in clinical and socio-occupational functions. MethodA single-grou...

BackgroundPeople with contamination-based obsessive-compulsive disorder (C-OCD) experience contamination-related stimuli as more disgusting than normal, which leads to avoidance behavior or washing and cleaning compulsions. This study aimed to investigate whether evaluative conditioning through repetitively pairing a contamination-related stimulus with a pleasant one, and transcranial stimulation over the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the brain areas involved in disgust processing, can reduce the ...

AimSurgical interventions such as deep brain stimulation (DBS) have demonstrated efficacy for severe treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder (TR-OCD) internationally, but surgical treatment has yet to be implemented in Japan. One factor hindering progress is uncertainty regarding domestic clinical demand, so a nationwide survey of psychiatrists was conducted to clarify their perceptions of OCD surgery. We analysed the data with the aim of identifying factors associated with the accepta...

The Dimensional Obsessive Compulsive Scale (DOCS) was developed to address several limitations of existing self-report measures of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms, and has been found to be a psychometrically sound method of assessing OCD symptoms in adults. However, to date, the psychometric performance of the DOCS has not been studied in a youth sample. The present study addressed this gap in the literature by examining the psychometric properties of the DOCS in a large sample (n=1...

ObjectiveTo provide a timely, rigorous and continuously updated summary of the available evidence on the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in people with severe and refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). MethodsWe conducted a systematic literature review of intervention, as the baseline synthesis report of a living evidence approach. We followed the methodological framework by Elliot et al. 2014. The L.OVE platform from Epistemonikos was used for identification, screening a...

Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) exhibit nonspecific deficits in executive function. Internal preoccupations with obsessive-compulsive themes (OCs) may prevent individuals with OCD from fully engaging in externally oriented tasks, explaining these deficits - an executive overload model of OCD. This study reports data from 43 individuals with OCD and 54 healthy individuals collected using the revised Attention Network Test (ANT-R) that is consistent with predictions of the ...

BackgroundThere is an understandable concern that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may worsen during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is little empirical data. We report the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the short-term course of OCD. We also assessed for predictors of relapse and emergence of COVID-19-themed obsessive-compulsive symptoms. MethodsA cohort of patients with a primary diagnosis of OCD (n=240) who were on regular follow-up at a tertiary care specialty OCD Clinic in India were as...

ObjectiveTranscranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been proposed for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). While it has advantages such as affordability, home-use application, and fewer side effects compared to other treatment options, its clinical efficacy is not yet established, and previous results have been mixed. This randomized, sham-controlled study investigated the efficacy of a novel intensified tDCS protocol targeting the inferior frontal cortex (IFC), a relevant brain...

BackgroundThe pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) appears to involve dysfunctions in brain circuits underlying sensorimotor, cognitive, affective, and motivational processes. One area of dysfunction observed is disruption in inhibitory motor control. While functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has revealed associated alterations at the brain network level in adults, studies in pediatric OCD has yielded inconsistent results. MethodsThis task-based fMRI study examined ex...

Despite various interventions for anxiety disorders, effects can take months and many individuals do not respond. Activity in the anterior cingulate cortex is a consistent predictor of treatment outcomes, and can be measured by medial frontal theta (MFT) event-related potentials. This study used task-based electroencephalography and MFT to predict anxiety sensitivity treatment response at mid-treatment, 1-week post-treatment, and 6 months post-treatment. Results indicated that lower medial to la...

This scoping review explores sex and gender differences in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) as reported in the literature between 2009 and 2021. A comprehensive PubMed search was conducted without restrictions, using terms related to sex, gender, and OCD. 5,973 articles were screened by two reviewers, with 909 assessed at the full-text level. Of these, 541 were included: 37 meta-analyses, 8 systematic reviews, 25 narrative reviews, and 471 original reports. Original reports were categorized b...

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe psychiatric condition associated with high rates of suicide and poor interpersonal functioning. There are no FDA-approved medications, and evidence-based psychotherapies such as dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) are difficult to access and vulnerable to patient dropout. Novel treatment directions are urgently needed. Mindfulness is the core skill in DBT. Our team has developed a mindfulness-based real-time neurofeedback (mbNF) paradigm where ind...

BackgroundTo clarify the working mechanisms of psychotherapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), we studied the neural effects of two psychotherapies: cognitive behavioral therapy with exposure and response prevention (CBT-ERP) and inference-based cognitive behavioral therapy (I-CBT). MethodsFifty-five individuals with OCD completed an emotional processing task during fMRI before and after 20 weekly psychotherapy sessions, using general fear and OCD-related visual stimuli. Forty-two health...

BackgroundRepetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is an emerging treatment option for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The neurobiological mechanisms of rTMS in OCD have, however, been incompletely characterized. We compared clinical outcomes and changes in task-based brain activation following three different rTMS stimulation protocols, all combined with exposure and response prevention (ERP). MethodsIn this three-arm proof-of-concept randomized controlled clinical trial, 61 tr...

BackgroundEmotional processing deficits in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are reportedly caused by an aberrant frontolimbic circuit activation with inconsistent evidence, possibly due to symptom heterogeneity. We compared the activation and connectivity patterns of the frontolimbic structures during symptom provocation between patients with distinct symptom profiles of OCD. MethodsWe recruited 37 symptomatic OCD subjects categorized based on predominant symptom profiles, i.e., 19 with cont...

BackgroundImage-guided brain stimulation is hypothesized to enhance clinical outcomes but head-to-head comparisons favoring image-guidance are so far lacking. MethodsPTSD/MDD patients were randomized (N=51) to a two-condition sequence in a two period cross-over design. For the first condition, patients were randomized to 10-session rTMS treatment to either a subgenual cingulate (sgACC) functional connectivity cortical target (fMRI-guided) or standard scalp-based target. Additionally, patients w...

BackgroundApproximately 25% of all patients with bipolar disorder are considered treatment-resistant. Accelerated intermittent Theta Burst Stimulation (aiTBS) is an innovative form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), delivering bursts of stimulation at theta wave frequencies, which are believed to enhance synaptic plasticity. This pilot study aimed to explore the safety, tolerability, and preliminary efficacy of aiTBS in individuals with treatment-resistant bipolar depression...

IntroductionThe Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) approach initiated by the National Institute of Mental Health provides a comprehensive framework for guiding research on mental illness and health. Since retrospective studies have indicated associations between RDoC characteristics and clinically relevant as well as care-relevant outcomes, there is a need for prospective, theory-driven investigations that systematically link a priori defined assessments of RDoC constructs to clinically and care-re...

BackgroundWe have established an epidemiological obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) cohort in Sweden. Individuals contributed DNA for genotyping and sequencing and also completed a Swedish translation of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R), a self-report questionnaire for assessing the severity and type of symptoms of OCD. This study made use of the OCI-R data to examine the severity and symptom dimensions of OCD as well as comorbidity with other psychiatric disorders. MethodsOC...

IntroductionChildhood and adolescent maltreatment (CAM) is associated with many psychiatric conditions, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, it remains unclear whether the severity of OCD symptoms vary according to the type of stress encountered in early life. MethodA sample of 345 participants (174 of whom had OCD) completed online measures of CAM (Child Abuse and Trauma Scale; CATS), OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised; OCI-R), anxiety, and depression (Hospital Anxi...