BAP SKB-YOUNG-PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGIST-AWARD - TOWARDS A NEUROENDOCRINOLOGY OF OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER/

Neuroendocrine research has made an important contribution to the unde rstanding of psychiatric illness in vivo. This review is a summary of the recent neuroendocrine studies on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OC D) patients carried out at the Departments of Psychiatry at Trinity Co llege Medical School and St. Patrick's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. We f ound that both serotonergic and cholinergic abnormalities were present in OCD, while noradrenergic responsivity and hypothalmic-pituitary ax is function were normal. The data suggests that OCD may have a unique neuroendocrinology.