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Thomas R. Insel, MD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1992;49(9):739-744.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

This issue of the ARCHIVES includes three new reports of functional brain imaging studies in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).^1-3 These articles add to a growing literature on changes in either regional brain metabolism or blood flow in patients with OCD. Although the first such article was published only 5 years ago,⁴ there is already a consensus developing toward a neuroanatomic model of the pathophysiologic characteristics of this mysterious syndrome. In this Comment, I examine the evidence for such a model in light of these new findings.

BACKGROUND

Proposals for a neurologic basis of OCD can be traced back to the last century.⁵ With time, many different forms of evidence have been marshalled to support a neurologic origin for OCD,^6-8 including recent reports^9,10 that more than 90% of patients with OCD have "soft signs" consistent with some subtle neurologic disorder. In addition, several true neurologic . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Laboratory of Neurophysiology, National Institute of Mental Health, Poolsville, Md.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication April 21, 1992.

Reprint requests to Laboratory of Neurophysiology, National Institute of Mental Health, PO Box 289, Poolesville, MD 20837 (Dr Insel).

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