Motivation to change as a predictor of treatment response in obsessive compulsive disorder.

Background: Motivation to change has been shown to predict treatment outcome in various areas of mental health but has never been examined in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The purpose of this report is to present the first use of the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA) in an OCD pharmacotherapy sample and to determine whether motivation to change predicts degree of treatment response in this group.

Methods: The sample consisted of 32 outpatients diagnosed with OCD who completed an open-label 10-week trial of fluvoxamine.

Psychotherapy of obsessive-compulsive disorder and spectrum: established facts and advances, 1995-2005.

Dropout rates and refractory cases persist, for reasons that remain unexplained. There are few predictor variables and few innovative approaches to deal with them. New treatment approaches must be developed to improve treatment response even for the responders.

Computerized perceptual analysis of patients with body dysmorphic disorder: a pilot study.

Many factors influence the development of body image, one of which is the perception we have of our body. Perception can refer to actual visual input or the interpretation of vision; in other words, cognitive appraisal. The goal of this preliminary study is to determine if three groups (body dysmorphic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and a non-psychiatric control group) differed in the perception of their faces.

Neuroanatomical correlates and somatosensorial disturbances in body dysmorphic disorder.

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a condition characterized by an intense preoccupation with an imagined or slight defect in physical appearance. Although there is a general consensus that psychosocial factors play a major role in the development of BDD, there is some evidence suggesting that an organic somatosensorial disturbance may also exist in this condition. Several psychiatric and neurological disorders, including the interparietal syndrome, Gertsman's syndrome, inferoparietal syndrome, phantom limb syndrome, genital retraction syndrome, panencephalitis, cerebrovascular syndromes, and pharyngeal streptococcia affecting the basal ganglia, can present with somatosensorial disturbances similar to BDD.

Overvalued ideation as a predictor of fluvoxamine response in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The presence of overvalued ideation (OVI) in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has been theoretically linked to poorer treatment outcome. OVI has recently been shown to predict treatment outcome in OCD. The purpose of the present study is to determine whether OVI predicts medication treatment response, controlling for initial symptom severity and measurement error.

Possible basal ganglia pathology in children with complex symptoms.

Background: Clinical observation of children presenting with a myriad of motor, behavioral, emotional, and sensorial symptoms who do not respond to treatment led to the hypothesis that these children may constitute a unique population, perhaps even a new clinical entity. The literature on child and adolescent psychopathology does not specifically address the phenomenological, diagnostic, and etiological factors that make these children unique. For this reason, a preliminary study was conducted to identify additional symptoms and features that make these children different.

The Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale: item structure in an outpatient setting.

The Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS) is one of the most popular measures of symptom severity for childhood obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This study describes the factor structure of the CY-BOCS. A total of 233 children diagnosed with OCD were evaluated with the CY-BOCS.

Basal ganglia hemorrhagic ablation associated with temporary suppression of obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

Currently, basal ganglia (BG) are considered regulators of motor and emotional activity. It's operationality encompass Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The case of a patient suffering with severe OCD is described of note, his symptoms disappeared following a hemorrhage of the left BG.