Brain Imaging

Running Head : BRAIN IMAGING

Brain Imaging

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Brain Imaging : Morphology and Function in OCD

Introduction

Obsessive Compulsive Dis (OCD ) is a condition characterized by recurrent intrusive , often repugnant , and always anxiety-ridden thoughts and images and by sets of ritualized behaviors performed compulsively by the sufferer in an attempt to allay the anxiety . The compulsive behaviors typically provide little relief , however , and the sufferer remains relegated to an anxious and painful daily experience . Thus , the patient who drives over the same speed bump each

morning may find it impossible to relieve oneself of the concern that one may have , on a particular morning , driven over a pedestrian instead , and one is compelled to circle the block in a ritualized fashion searching for a crushed body in the street . While the sufferer is able to acknowledge the perverse and senseless nature of the rituals , this insight alone fails to relieve the experience of helplessness (Pauls et al , 1995

As has been true of most psychiatric diss , traditional etiologic explanations have been based on psychoanalytic findings and constructs Formulations of the illness based on cognitive processing models represent a more recent development . Still more recently , a significant reconceptualization of obsessive-compulsive symptomatology has followed the development of modern functional imaging technologies , and a biologically-oriented and brain-centered view of OCD has emerged in light of the substantial findings from the last decades . The most popular brain theory to date explains the pathogenesis of OCD as an imbalance in the action of a...