Recent research on the obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has emphasis on the moderating effects of the brain behavioral mechanisms.

The main purpose of this research was to examine the Gray's brain behavioral systems (1994) among the obsessive-compulsive disordered patients.

My aim of this research was to examine the Gray's brain behavioral systems (1994) among the obsessive-compulsive disordered patients.

Participants were included 20 obsessive-compulsive patients and 20 normal individuals who were selected respectively by available sampling and counter balance sampling methods on the basis of the age, sex and education variables. The average of participant's ages was 29/85 (SD = 7/37). All subjects were completed the Gray-Wilson Questionnaire and data were extracted for the three systems of BAS, BIS and FFS and also for its six measures of approach, active avoidance, passive avoidance, extinction, fight and flight separately.

A multivariate analysis of variance, for comparing six measures of the Gray-Wilson questionnaire were shown significantly differences for Behavioral Activation System (BAS) and also for Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS). Pairwise comparisons were shown a higher Behavioral- Inhibition system (BIS) and a lower Behavioral- Activation system (BAS) in obsessive -compulsive patients than normal individuals. No significant difference was found for Fight- Flight system (FFS).

These results were suggested higher BIS and lower BAS activity as moderator of OCD. This results supported the reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) conveying a higher tendency to the punishment and elimination of the reward in anxious person as a consequence of Behavioral-Inhibition System (BIS).

Results from clinical and molecular genetic studies suggest that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) could have a shared pattern of heritability. Among a large number of clinical variables evaluated, obsessive compulsive/repetitive behaviors have been found to be highly correlated among autism probands and their relatives. Empirical evidence from neuropsychological studies suggest that an appropriate model for repetitive behaviours is a deficit of executive functions specifically flexibility. Given the lack of flexibility observed in ASD and OCD probands, we hypothesised that it could represent a shared endophenotype in both families.

Seven cognitive tests belonging to executive functions, central coherence and theory of mind were proposed to 58 unaffected first-degree relatives of probands with ASD and 61 unaffected first-degree relatives of OCD patients and compared with 34 healthy controls. A principal component analysis (PCA) was performed.

ASD relatives - specifically mothers - performed significantly worse on all the tests than OCD relatives and controls. Moreover, inside the OCD group, female individuals performed significantly worse than males. Finally, the PCA indicate that the cognitive profiles of the ASD relatives and the OCD relatives were similar but distinct from controls.

Lack of cognitive flexibility is observed in ASD and OCD families and might constitute a shared intermediate cognitive phenotype. Our study constitutes an effort to clarify the relationship between ASD and OCD having implications for our nosological understanding of both disorders.

Despite the substantial clinical improvements provided by the pharmacologic and cognitive-behavior therapies of OCD, it has been estimated that 40%–60% of patients still remains refractory to conventional treatment.

Medication augmentation can be an effective and well-tolerated short-term treatment strategy for non-responders to first-line pharmacotherapy of obsessive-compulsive disorders.

To investigate the efficacy of paliperidone as augmenting agent in the treatment of resistant OCD patient.

In the present case, we present a 6 months follow-up of an obsessive-compulsive patient treated with paliperidone ER and fluvoxamine. Paliperidone ER was started at 6 mg/day and increased up to a maximum of 12 mg/day. The clinical symptoms were measured by Y-BOCS and efficacy measures with CGI and PSP scale scores.

We found that obsessive-compulsive symptoms improved after 4weeks. Patient showed a significant improvement over the 6 months follow-up for Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale total score at week 24 as compared with baseline (from a score of 34 to a score of 12). A significant improvement in the mean PSP scale score was also seen and “much improved” on the CGI score from baseline to end point. A mean bodyweight change of ≤2 kg over the 24-week study period observed, but there were no clinically meaningful changes in glucose, insulin and blood lipid levels. There was no adverse event reported after the augmentation with paliperidone.

Adding paliperidone to SSRIs could be a valid strategy for treatment-resistant OCD patients and additional efficacy studies and randomized, double-blind studies are needed.

In our mind as well as in our body and nature nothing is happened accidentally, we can often see that there is mutual connection between them. There is a case presentation of young man age 29 with obsessive thoughts for getting fatal disease if step on junky needles which he had seen in his neighbor. It thoughts influence his all life he is avoiding to go out of his apartment, poorly sleep, he insisted to be admitted to in patient treatment because he „would probably kill himself if he had to stay there jet…” His first difficulties appeared when he was 20, after his first sexual experience which he has had with prostitute, after his friend’s birthday party. Then he obsessively started to think about getting AIDS, getting died… Four years ago he really have got malignant testicular tumor and in his 24he had passed through exhausting surgery and chemotherapy. As a child he was growing up during the war time, experienced snake bite, often tonsil infections.

Now he has no job, live with parents and one year older brother, no girlfriend or other relationship. Treated with antidepressant venlafaxin, and atypical narcoleptic risperidon, with additionally used EMDR, he showed good recovery and getting into every day activities.

Moral conflict and unsolved guilty feelings lead to real illness and constant fear of fatal disease as a punishment for him.

To evaluate the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of fixed-dose agomelatine 25 and 50 mg/d in the treatment of outpatients with obsesive-compulsive disorder (OCD) compared to placebo.

In this 8-week, multicenter, double-blind, parallel-group trial, patients with DSM-IV-defined OCD were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to receive a once-daily dose of agomelatine 25 mg, agomelatine 50 mg, or placebo. The primary efficacy measure was the change from baseline to week 8 in the clinician-rated 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS(17)); other efficacy measures were The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and the Clinical Global Impression scale. The study was conducted between December 2009 and January 2010.

Agomelatine 25 mg/d was more efficacious based on the HDRS(17) total score (P = .01) compared to placebo throughout the treatment period, whereas for agomelatine 50 mg/d, statistically significant reduction in HDRS(17) total score could be observed from weeks 2 to 6 but not at week 8 (P = .144). A higher proportion of patients receiving agomelatine 25 mg/d showed clinical response (P = .013), clinical remission (P = .07), and improvement according to the Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement scale (P = .065) compared to those receiving placebo. No statistically significant difference between patients receiving agomelatine 50 mg/d compared to placebo on clinical response. Both agomelatine doses were safe and well tolerated, although clinically notable aminotransferase elevations were observed transiently in the agomelatine 50 mg/d group.

Agomelatine 50 mg/d provided evidence for its antidepressant efficacy until week 6 and was also safe and well tolerated.

Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the two treatments recognized as most efficient to improve Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) symptoms.

The major aim of this study is to facilitate CBT for OCD checkers. To this purpose, we developed a new psycho-pedagogic tool to be used during CBT sessions and assessed its objective efficacy and the patients’ perception of their therapy.

Experimental CBT sessions included a “checking task”, composed of a “matching task” followed by a “checking phase” during which subjects were given the opportunity to check or to confirm their prior answer. This tool was appended to a classical CBT (as described in the literature).

30 OCD patients with checking compulsions each followed 15 individual CBT sessions with a psychologist. They were randomized in two groups: a “reference CBT” (CBT classically described in literature) and an “experimental CBT” (reference CBT + checking task) group. Symptom severity was assessed by the Y-BOCS and CGI at three main stages of the therapies: before, at half-therapy, at the end of therapy and 6 months later. Assessment was performed blindly by an expert psychologist to avoid any bias, and the patients’ impressions were collected at the same time.

At the end of therapies, symptom severity decreased significantly (24.08 to 12.5) and participants had a better global functioning, especially in their social and familial lives.

Both CBT offer an important clinical improvement of OCD symptoms. Patients and psychologists expressed their satisfaction at having participated to the study.

Prevalence of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in general population is 2–3%. This high prevalence is not often reflected in number of assitances to Emergency Department. There are few studies that analyze the characteristics of OCD patients assisting to psychiatric emergency services.

To establish the profile of these patients, determining aswell their type of emergency assistance, time distribution and why they relapse. We used the SPSS 17 package.

A retrospective and descriptive study of attendances at the Psychiatry Emergency Department of Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago de Compostela in a sample of patients fitting the ICD-10 criteria for OCD diagnosis (n = 45). Time period: from 9TH July 2007 to 26TH September 2010.

From 5091 attendances at the Psychiatry Emergency Department, 45 patients had an OCD diagnosis (57.8% women), with a mean age of 33.31 ± 11.58 years. 68.9% came from rural areas. 44.4% had comorbid psychiatric disorders.68.9% came by own initiative. In 28.9% the consultation was anxiety, 15.6% obsessive symptoms and 11% affective symptoms. 13.3% were admitted to a psychiatric ward.There was lower attendance between 0:00–08:00 AM and on Fridays. The months with more attendance were August and September.12% had more than one assitance, 85.7% were women with anxiety symptoms (38%) and with personality disorder as the most frequent comorbid diagnosis.

Patient's profile: “33 years old female from countryside, presenting anxiety symptoms, who comes only once and by own initiative. Doesn’t have comorbid psychiatric disorders. After the psychiatric evaluation she is discharged to outpatient's psychiatric follow-up”.

The therapeutic limitations of mainstay psychopharmacological treatments of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) warrant the clinical testing of further add-on agents in order to improve patients’ clinical outcomes. The novel antiepileptic drug pregabalin (PGB) could be such an adjunctive agent in view of its attested efficacy in other anxiety disorders, especially generalized anxiety disorder.

We report on an open-label add-on trial of the novel antiepileptic pregabalin (PGB) in 10 (4 male and 6 female) OCD-patients resistant or only partial responders to an - at least 6-month long - combination of serotonin reuptake inhibitors with atypical antipsychotic.

Patients’ regimens were stable for at least the last six months before their enrolment in the study and were maintained unchanged throughout the trial. Patients’ assessment took place weekly during the trial. PGB's dosage titration was conditional upon both degree of clinical response and side-effects during past week. Patients’ pre- and post- PGB ratings on the Y-BOCS were compared by means of paired samples t-test.

Adjunctive PGB at 225–675 mg/d was well-tolerated and led within 4–12 weeks to patients’ substantial improvement in their OCD symptoms, as reflected in their scores on the Y-BOCS (t = 9.83, p < 0.001). Equally robust was Cohen's d measure of effect-size (d = 2,99).

Despite the several limitations of the study, its results suggest that adjunctive PGB might be a safe and efficacious new agent in the treatment of drug-resistant OCD.

Cognitive models hypothesize that certain dysfunctional beliefs leading to misinterpretation of the significance of intrusions are important in the etiology and maintenance of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). There is no consensus about which characteristics of OCD patients more likely to be associated with better treatment response.

We aimed to investigate whether obsessive beliefs change over time in the OCD patients receiving Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors. We also investigated the effect of change in obsessive beliefs on psychopharmacological treatment response.

A sample of 75 patients with OCD were interviewed the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). To measure dysfunctional beliefs, they were administered the Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire-44 (OBQ-44) which contains three subscales; threat overestimation and responsibility, importance and control of intrusive thoughts, and perfectionism and need for certainty.

The seventy-six percent (n=57) patients completed the treatment period and they were reassessed after 12 weeks with the Y-BOCS, HDRS and OBQ-44. The mean change scores of responders for OBQ-44 Responsibility/Threat Estimation and OBQ-44 Perfectionism/Certainty were not significantly differing from those of non-responders. The mean change in responders for OBQ-44 Importance/Control of Thoughts and HDRS were significantly higher than non responders.

Our results suggest that treatment response to pharmacotherapy in OCD is negatively associated with the obsessive beliefs about perfectionism and certainty. The alleviation of negative mood by SRIs may not allow the sufferer disengages from dysfunctional appraisals.

A 21-year-old man was admitted to our clinic due to treatment resistant cervical dystonia attributed to neuroleptics. During the last five years he had been treated for depressed mood, somatic delusions and aggressive behaviour. He had been given SSRIs and atypical antipsychotics at low doses; six months prior to his admission he had been switched to risperidone.

Present clinical examination revealed torticollis, motor stereotypies, vocal tics (sniffing, repetition of words), mental koprolalia and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. He complained of repetitive intrusive thoughts of harming his sister and thoughts of a ‘delusional’ nature regarding somatic complaints were also present. The patient was diagnosed as TS and was successfully treated accordingly.

TS can mimic many hyperkinetic states. Whether patients with TS are at higher risk of developing dystonia, or tics and dystonia share a common pathophysiological mechanism (dopamine-inhibiting processes are probably involved in both conditions) is still debatable.

Childhood trauma is known to predispose to a variety of psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, mood, and substance use. However, the relationship between childhood trauma and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has not been well studied. The aim of the present study is to compare childhood trauma experience between OCD and controls, and explore its impact on symptoms of OCD.

One hundred eighty-five outpatients who met DSM-IV diagnosis of OCD and 132 gender- age- matched controls were included in this study. The Early Trauma Inventory Self Report-Short Form (ETISR-SF) was administered to all participants to evaluate 4 types (general, physical, emotional and sexual) of trauma and its severity. The Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) was used to measure the severity of symptoms of OCD patients.

OCD patients showed a significantly greater severity in all four types of trauma when compare with controls. 77% of OCD patients reported at least one type of childhood trauma experience, and 18% reported sexual trauma. Sexual trauma experience is significantly associated with obsessive but not compulsive symptoms of OCD patients. When compared to female OCD patients, male patients reported significantly higher scores on general trauma, physical abuse and emotional abuse; but lower of sexual abuse.

The present study revealed the high prevalence of childhood trauma among OCD patients, which is consistent with evidence from previous studies suggesting that childhood trauma may play a role in the development of mental disorders. It may be important to consider the impact of childhood trauma in OCD clinical management.

1. 1. There has been found out the high intensity of anxious reaction in both groups of oncological female patients, which makes it necessary to provide psychological rehabilitations for patients.

2. 2. Euphoric, balanced and ergopatic Types of Attitude to the Disease have been frequently observed.

3. 3. The exceeding rates in the scales of neurotic triad observed through the MMPI need adequate correction.

4. 4. Restoring of the possibility for a woman to enjoy her reproductive function - improves the quality of life of such patients. Probably this will also increase the efficiency of the antineoplastic treatment and the life expectancy for this patients.

Alexithymia is a personality trait that may influence the resilience in oncologic patients.

Data on the effect of alexithymia on anxiety, depression, coping, and difficulties in daily living in oncologic patients are lacking.

To test how alexithymia may influence the development of anxiety, depression, difficulties in daily living, and coping in oncologic patients if compared to healthy volunteers.

Healthy subjects with high level of alexithymia, healthy subjects with low level of alexithymia, oncologic patients with high level of alexithymia, and oncologic patients with low level of alexithymia were compared. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) was used to assess alexithymia, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) allowed to assess anxiety and depression, the Brief COPE was used to assess the coping, and the dimension of daily living of the Behaviour And Symptom Identification Scale (BASIS-32) was used to assess the difficulties in daily living. The differences among the groups were analysed by means of the analyses of covariance controlling for age, education, marital status, and working activity.

A total of 124 subjects participated to the study (57 oncologic patients and 67 healthy subjects). Results showed a between-subjects effect of alexithymia. Subjects with higher level of alexithymia had higher scores in anxiety and depression, higher difficulties in daily living, and lower problem-focused and dysfunctional coping strategies, regardless of having cancer or not.

Alexithymia seems to influence the development of anxiety/depression, the functional daily living, and some strategies of coping more than having cancer.

The investigation of peculiarities of subjective functional status including the perception of the limitations of life activity in the cohort of out- patients operated on thyroid cancer.

We used short form of Russian version of medical questionnaire: SF -36 to estimate the quality of life in 90 operated patients with thyroid cancer as well as the control group.

The reliable distinctions were found in the majority of aspects of the subjective functional status. The following indicators were the lowest: Role-Physical Functioning (P = 0.001) and Role-Emotional Functioning (P = 0.001) which influenced on the general health perception and determined at large extent the limitations of life activity.

The subjective functional status of the patients operated on the thyroid cancer is considerably lower than those without this pathology. The study showed that the indicators of life quality of the patients operated on thyroid cancer were significantly decreased mostly in physical, psycho-emotional and social spheres. The investigation allows to explore psychological problems at the cohort of the patients with thyroid cancer and to improve the innovation programs of psychological rehabilitation.

Little is known about the suicide risk among cancer patients in Asian country.

To identify the risk and correlates of suicide death among cancer patients in Taiwan.

To provide the references for policy-making of suicide prevention and information for clinicians and care-givers.

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of cancer patients in Taiwan from 1985 to 2007 by linking two national-wide databases of the Taiwan Cancer Registry and the National Mortality File. Standardized mortality ratios (SMR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated based on the general population rates of suicide stratified by age, sex, and calendar year.

Among 930,230 registry cancer patients observed for 4,376,574 person-years, 2614 suicides were ascertained. Individuals with diagnosis of cancer had significantly higher risk to die by suicide (Man SMR = 2.46, 95% CI = 2.35–2.58; Woman SMR = 2.12, 95% CI = 1.98–2.28). Patients with cancers of head/neck, esophagus, and lung had additional higher risk to commit suicide. The risk of suicide elevated soon within first 3 months after cancer was diagnosed (Man SMR = 6.57, 95% CI = 5.82–7.41; Woman SMR = 5.83, 95% CI = 4.71–7.21).

Compared with general population, cancer patients had significantly higher risk to commit suicide in Taiwan. In addition to the prevention works focused on common risk factors of suicide death, clinicians and caretakers should pay special attention to patients with certain types of cancers and to those who were newly diagnosed to have cancers.

In Tunisia, the breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed neoplasm in women.

- Highlight the health-related QOL of Tunisian women after the treatment of breast cancer compared with the general population.

- assess the functional scales that predict the global quality of life (GQOL) scale of the QLQ - C30.

We recruited 50 patients who were in remission for at least 3 months after initial treatment of breast cancer, and 50 women with no history of cancer.

Those patients were previously referred to the Department of Gynecology in Sfax University Hospital for breast surgery, and then they had all received adjuvant therapy.

QOL was evaluated using the Arabic version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 questionnaire.

The mean scores for QLQ - C30 indicated that the patients had poor to average functioning (GQOL, 56.7; and five functional scales, 55.6%–67.3%).

Those scores showed a significant deterioration in the sample of breast cancer survivors relative to general population.

Among the symptoms scales, only the financial difficulties were significantly greater in patients (p = 9.10-7).

Deterioration of the GQOL was induced by the worsening of the emotional (p = 0.005) and social (p = 0.008) functioning but it was independent of symptoms scales.

The findings indicated that, despite many treatment advances, Tunisian women had significantly poorer GQOL and functional scales scores in comparison with the general population. It seems also that improving the emotional and social functioning contribute to a better GQOL.