Elsevier

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 31, Issue 3, 1 February 1992, Pages 263-270
Biological Psychiatry

Obsessive-compulsive disorder in Huntington's disease☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3223(92)90049-6Get rights and content

Abstract

Two patients with Huntington's disease (HD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are reported. The OCD was manifested by repetitive, stereotyped, complex, egodystonic behaviors that were disabling. These cases and other neurological syndromes with OCD (Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, neuroacanthocytosis, postencephalitic parkinsonism, caudate infarction, carbon monoxide poisoning, manganese intoxication, anoxia, progressive supranuclear palsy, Sydenham's chorea, and frontal lobe lesions) indicate that the frontal lobe, caudate nucleus, and globus pallidus are members of a complex circuit that plays a key role in mediating the symptoms of OCD. Evidence of excitatory subcortical output to cortex is shared by many neurological disorders manifesting OCD.

References (41)

  • L.R. Baxter et al.

    Local cerebral glucose metabolic rates in obsessive compulsive disorder

    Arch Gen Psychiatry

    (1987)
  • M.F. Beal et al.

    Neuropeptides in neurological disease

    Ann Neurol

    (1986)
  • G.W. Bruyn et al.

    Huntington's chorea: Current neuropathological status

  • B. Croisile et al.

    Bilateral damage to the head of the caudate nuclei

    Ann Neurol

    (1989)
  • A. Destee et al.

    Comportement compulsif d'allure obsessionnelle et paralysie supranucléaire progressive

    Rev Neurol

    (1990)
  • K. Dewhurst et al.

    Neuro-psychiatric aspects of Huntington's disease

    Confin Neurol

    (1969)
  • M.Ch. Durand et al.

    Syndrome extra-pyramidal après incompétence cardio-circulatoire

    Rev Neurol

    (1989)
  • M. Frankel et al.

    Obsessions and compulsions in Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome

    Neurology

    (1986)
  • P.E. Frye et al.

    Persistent amphetamine-induced compulsive rituals: Response to pyridoxine (B6)

    Biol Psychiatry

    (1981)
  • L. Grimshaw

    Obsessional disorder and neurological illness

    J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry

    (1964)

    • Cited by (0)

    ☆

    This project was supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

    View full text
    Copyright © 1982 Published by Elsevier Inc.