강박장애의 생물학

Biology o f Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Biological, phenomenological and pharmacological studies on obsessive-compulsive disorder were reviewed. Obsessive-compulsive disorder has some common manifestations with other psychiatric disorders, particularly depression, which are known to have biological findings as important etiologies. There are many reportes on family studies and twin studies which have shown evidence that obsessive-compulsive disorder is a genetic disorder. The effect of psychosurgery, some experiments stimulating the brain, and development of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in brain disorders suggest the anatomical basis of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Many pharmacological studies suggest that serotonin is closely related with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Intergrating these findings, it has been suggested that a software package for geneticallyrelated ritualistic patterns of behavior is located somewhere in the basal ganglia, connected with the limbic system and frontal lobe. Stress or stimuli, which are perceived as being dangerous, release those ritualistc obsessive-compulsive behavior patterns stored in the intrinsic package circuit. Once the circuit is operating, this obsessive-compulsive behavior can not be controlled by will. The proposed uptake blocking drugs such as clomipramine and fluoxetine may inhibit this process. However, the etiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder could not be this simple. Thus, the integration of these biological theories and psychodynamic explanations will be a very stimulating research subject in the future.