Posted by yxibow on May 3, 2009, at 0:37:34
In reply to Re: OCD - Just a thought., posted by linkadge on May 2, 2009, at 15:12:32
> There is little evidence that OCD is a biochemical disorder as research has not conclusively shown the existence of biochemical abnormalities.
>
> There is some evidence that there is a deficit of grey matter within the OCD circuit (orbitofrontal cortex, the caudate nucleus, and the thalamus). This may be what is resulting in the relative inability to properly process and filter anxiety.
>
> The SSRI's kind of put the breaks on this circuit perhaps by altering the ballance of monoamines in this region.
>
> Another thing to keep in mind is that clomipramine has some dopamine and acetylcholine antagonism which may also reduce glutamatergic function in the frontal cortex.
>
> Shame about its carcinogenic potential. It was a darn good psychotropic.
Oh.... sigh.... you're entitled to your own opinion but having lived with it for -life- I know it is a biochemical disorder.Its first manifestation is most often triggered by a large psychological event.
In my case that was a double event, discovering that those things below my waist had another function, i.e. puberty, and shortly later finding out that I was gay.
Anyway, shuttle about 6 years later, hoarding, magical thoughts, washing up to the point of 7 hour showers even though I fainted during them and having my hands turn bone white, an anticlimactic graduation from high school, two and a half months of hospitalisation after I had nothing left to do but my OCD, recovering in a program....
And finally working for someone I can't disclose but produced definitive PET scans of people with OCD, treated with CBT, treated with medication, both, etc, yes, large evidence in the caudate, I'm fully convinced that it is biological.
And its not over. Because it never is over. Its dormant, as many OCD patients know -- but CBT helps a lot especially when it is first caught, to minimize events later in life by remembering the steps to take to help you help yourself on your own.But on the bright side it may be dormant or nearly dormant for the remainder of our wondrous existence here. The biochemistry of it may be similar, but it obviously varies slightly from patient to patient.
While I do not know the etiology or even all the parts of what has really taken a swing at my life over the past seven years, what I do know is there is an OC component to it, one that at times can be very obvious.
I haven't had "pure O" ... which technically is a grinding thought that seemingly doesnt stop, so I can't call it that, its many thoughts and scenarios that play out and sit in my head for weeks and change around, but they resemble the general spectrum of OC.And it sucks me into depression and its distracting.
And as for TCAs and genotoxicity, we are talking largely about rat studies. Who knows what any medication that we are taking will affect our lifespan ?
I can tell you that people with serious depression have something else much more tangible to keep in check than a nth degree increase in cancer 50 years down the road and that is death from suicide.
Its your very own choice not to take medications because of cancer studies, but there are more obvious risks of cancer out there, smoking, breast cancer in the family, and just standing outside in the sun all day unprotected for 60 years.
-- Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:893777
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090426/msgs/893975.html