Spotlight on OCD
People with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), have intrusive and anxiety-provoking thoughts, such as fears of contamination or that harm will come to a loved one, which are associated with compulsive acts or rituals. Such obsessions and compulsions are distressing, time consuming and seriously impair everyday life. Other related disorders are hoarding disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, hair-pulling disorder and skin-picking disorder.
When the brain forces the body
Patients with OCD are held hostage by their own brains. And there is no ransom to be paid. Research from Karolinska Institutet shows that cognitive behavioral therapy, CBT, could be an effective treatment against OCD.
The world’s largest gene study on OCD is being conducted in Sweden
By mapping the total genome of 10,000 patients with OCD, Swedish and international researchers are hoping to create a new map of the diseases.
Compulsive thoughts can be blocked
In OCD, the nerve impulses are considered overactive. Diana Djurfeldt has therefore treated patients with OCD using deep brain stimulation.
Online CBT is increasing availability
The different obsessive-compulsive disorders are treated with various forms of CBT as a first step. This is a treatment that requires guidance from psychologists or psychiatrists trained in CBT, a scarcity in the healthcare sector.
Online CBT effective against OCD symptoms in the young
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in children and adolescents is associated with impaired education and worse general health later in life. Access to specialist treatment is often limited. According to a study from Centre for Psychiatry Research at Karolinska Institutet and Region Stockholm, internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can be as effective as conventional CBT. The study, published in the prestigious journal JAMA, can help make treatment for OCD more widely accessible.
“There are good hairs and then there are bad hairs"
The group CBT treatments have helped her to be able to almost completely stop the pulling.
“I read books backwards, otherwise someone would die"
Per Persson tried all kinds of treatment, but nothing helped until they operated an electrode into his brain.
Developing online treatments for OCD
Christian Rück is a psychiatrist who researches different types of obsessive-compulsive disorders – both causes and treatments. He has developed Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that is currently used in psychiatry in Sweden as well as abroad.
