Treatment Youth With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Status:
Unknown status
Trial end date:
2010-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Although research suggests that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) exhibit
specific deficits in their high cognitive processes, it is still unknown how these deficits
relate to the clinical symptoms of the disorder, and to the response to treatment. There are
two aims for the proposed research. The first is to examine how high cognitive processes and
brain activity are affected in OCD. The second aim is to investigate the effects of a
specific psychotropic medication (escitalopram) on high cognitive processes and brain
activity in OCD. We will investigate how 40 youth with OCD (recruited in specialized clinics)
differ from 40 healthy youth (recruited from the local community) on selected cognitive tests
and brain imaging paradigms, as well as explore how treatment with medication can correct or
reverse the observed differences. The final goal of our research is to learn more about the
mechanisms of action for available treatments, in order to refine and improve short- and
long-term therapeutic strategies for a highly debilitating and often lifelong disorder.