Drug regulation of norepinephrine may be able to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder, commonly known as "obsessive-compulsive disorder", is a kind of mental disorder which is common in clinic but difficult to cure ERP is the most effective treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder, but the specific efficacy is restricted by the patient's condition, the level of therapists and other factors According to the Atlantic, the number of OCD patients in the United States is between 3 million and 7 million, while most of the psychiatrists are concentrated in cities and rural areas are in serious shortage More than half of the counties have no psychiatrists at all As for the psychiatrists with ERP treatment qualification, although there is no exact statistical data so far, the number is far from meeting the current needs ERP treatment intensity of obsessive-compulsive patients is relatively high, generally once a week, ranging from less than one hour to two hours each time, with an average charge of about $400 per hour Most of the patients can get different degrees of improvement after 10 to 20 times of treatment Severe patients can be treated intensively once a day, usually for three weeks In this way, the whole treatment needs at least $40000, more than $100000 Obsessive compulsive disorder (source: Getty Images) recently, scientists at University College London (University College London) found that a drug that can prevent the proliferation of noradrenaline in the human body may increase the self-confidence of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and may lead to new therapies for schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder Tobias Hauser, head of the research group, said that although obsessive-compulsive disorder appears to be a mental health problem, once it is diagnosed, drug treatment should be given priority Although the cause of obsessive-compulsive disorder is still unclear, some studies have found that obsessive-compulsive disorder is closely related to biochemical reactions in the human body: just like depression, the imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain is an important cause of obsessive-compulsive disorder Previous studies have found that the deficiency of 5-hydroxytryptamine, the increase of glutamic acid and the deficiency of σ receptor function in the brain are the main causes of obsessive-compulsive disorder Antidepressant and anti compulsive drugs can act on these neurotransmitters, make the neurotransmitter metabolism in the brain tend to be normal, so as to improve the obsessive-compulsive symptoms Hauser and colleagues asked 40 participants to take drugs that block dopamine or noradrenaline before and after placebo The other 20 participants took only two placebos After that, participants played a game in which they decided whether to move the random points left or right In the game, the researchers also asked participants if they were confident in their own judgment The results show that blocking noradrenaline seems to make people more confident, make participants more aware of their performance, and do not affect the accuracy of their judgment But blocking dopamine and placebo had no effect Propranolol, a common beta blocker commonly used to treat irregular heart rate and other conditions, may have a significant effect on obsessive-compulsive disorder, researchers found Dr Hauser said that propranolol can act on norepinephrine neurotransmitters in the brain, relieve obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms, and even treat depression and schizophrenia Paper link: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24901.001