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A Complex Case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

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Complex Clinical Conundrums in Psychiatry

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Abstract

Despite being amongst the commonest psychological problems seen in both adults and children, treatment of OCD is often misunderstood and poorly administered. This is disappointing as, correctly treated, OCD responds well to treatment with either psychological treatment involving graded exposure and response prevention (ERP) or with relatively high doses of drugs acting on the serotonin system. The first-line treatment of OCD is outlined in this chapter. A small percentage of people do not respond to these first-line treatments and, in these cases, there is evidence for either combining drug treatment with ERP or additionally adding in an agent which acts on the dopamine system. More recent work from highly specialist centres have also demonstrated efficacy for using selective serotonin reuptake-inhibiting drugs in above licensed doses for the small percentage of patients who fail to respond to more conventional treatment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National and Trustwide Services for OCD/BDD, SW London and St. George’s NHS Trust, London, UK

    Lynne Drummond & Andrew Roney

Authors
  1. Lynne Drummond
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  2. Andrew Roney
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lynne Drummond .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Northern Ontario School of Medicine Psychiatry Department, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

    Kuppuswami Shivakumar

  2. Woodstock General Hospital, Woodstock Ontario, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

    Shabbir Amanullah

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Drummond, L., Roney, A. (2018). A Complex Case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). In: Shivakumar, K., Amanullah, S. (eds) Complex Clinical Conundrums in Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70311-4_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70311-4_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70310-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70311-4

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