An evaluation of treatment response and remission definitions in adult obsessive-compulsive disorder: A systematic review and individual-patient data meta-analysis.

Introduction: Expert consensus operationalized treatment response and remission in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) as a Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) reduction ≥35% and score ≤12 with ≤2 on Clinical Global Impressions Improvement (CGI-I) and Severity (CGI-S) scales, respectively. However, there has been scant empirical evidence supporting these definitions.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review and an individual participant data meta-analysis of randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) in adults with OCD to determine optimal Y-BOCS thresholds for response and remission.

The time scales of irreversibility in spontaneous brain activity are altered in obsessive compulsive disorder.

We study how obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) affects the complexity and time-reversal symmetry-breaking (irreversibility) of the brain resting-state activity as measured by magnetoencephalography (MEG). Comparing MEG recordings from OCD patients and age/sex matched control subjects, we find that irreversibility is more concentrated at faster time scales and more uniformly distributed across different channels of the same hemisphere in OCD patients than in control subjects. Furthermore, the interhemispheric asymmetry between homologous areas of OCD patients and controls is also markedly different.

Kundalini Yoga Meditation Versus the Relaxation Response Meditation for Treating Adults With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is often a life-long disorder with high psychosocial impairment. Serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) are the only FDA approved drugs, and approximately 50% of patients are non-responders when using a criterion of 25% to 35% improvement with the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS). About 30% are non-responders to combined first-line therapies (SRIs and exposure and response prevention).

Nasal cycle dominance and hallucinations in an adult schizophrenic female.

Nasal dominance, at the onset of hallucinations, was studied as a marker of both the lateralized ultradian rhythm of the autonomic nervous system and the tightly coupled ultradian rhythm of alternating cerebral hemispheric dominance in a single case study of a schizophrenic female. Over 1086 days, 145 hallucination episodes occurred with left nostril dominance significantly greater than the right nostril dominant phase of the nasal cycle. A right nostril breathing exercise, that primarily stimulates the left hemisphere, reduces symptoms more quickly for hallucinations.