What pharmacology teaches us about the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder

• Autor(a) principal: Marazziti,Donatella
• Data de Publicação: 2000
• Outros Autores: Di Nasso,Elena
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry (São Paulo. 1999. Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-44462000000400009
• topic: Obsessive-compulsive disorder; Serotonergic drugs; Serotonin reuptake inhibitors; Psychopharmacology; Serotonin receptors; Signal transduction

Once considered rare and resistant to treatments, obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) has now emerged as one the most common psychiatric conditions, with a lifetime prevalence of about 2.5 %, and as a major cause of long-term disability to patients and their families. The treatment of OCD has changed dramatically over the last decade following the introduction of selective serotonin (5-HT) reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, paroxetine, sertraline, citalopram, which provide symptom remission in about 60% of the patients. OCD is unique in the response to serotonergic agents and it has been clearly demonstrated that non-serotonergic antidepressants such as desipramine have no effect. The specific response of OCD patients to SSRIs has emphasized the possible role of the main target of these drugs, namely the 5-HT system, in the pathophysiology of the disorder. If the role of 5-HT in OCD is not questionable, future studies should be directed towards the elucidation of the 5-HT receptor subtypes involved, of the second messengers transducing the signal, as well as of the interactions between 5-HT and the other neurotransmitters.