Volumetric investigation of the frontal-subcortical circuitry in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2004 Summer;16(3):342-9. doi: 10.1176/jnp.16.3.342.

Abstract

The pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is thought to involve disturbance of the frontal-subcortical circuitry. To investigate the morphological characteristics of this circuitry, we examined the volume of the orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, thalamus, caudate, and the putamen in 36 age- and sex-matched OCD patients and normal control subjects using three-dimensional magnetic resonance (MR) brain imaging. The left orbitofrontal volumes were found to be significantly smaller in the OCD patients and showed significant negative correlations with obsessive-compulsive symptom severity. These findings suggest that a structural abnormality of this brain region is implicated in the pathophysiology of OCD.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Brain / pathology
  • Brain Mapping
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Female
  • Frontal Lobe / pathology*
  • Functional Laterality / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional / methods
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods
  • Male
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / pathology*
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / physiopathology