The Huberman Lab Podcast discusses neuroscience: how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health. We also discuss existing and emerging tools for measuring and changing how our nervous system works. Dr. Andrew Huberman is a tenured Professor of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. His laboratory studies neural regeneration, neuroplasticity, and brain states such as stress, focus, fear, and optimal performance. For more than 20 years, Dr. Huberman has consistently published original research findings and review articles in top-level peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Science, Cell, Neuron, and Current Biology. He is a regular member of several National Institutes of Health review panels and a Fellow of the McKnight Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts. Dr. Huberman regularly consults for technology development companies, professional athletic organizations, and various units of U.S. and Canadian Special Operations.
Essentials: The Science & Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
In this Huberman Lab Essentials episode, I explain the biology and psychology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and describe the neural circuitry behind repetitive "thought-action loops," including why compulsive actions actually strengthen the underlying obsessions rather than relieve them. I discuss the most effective treatments for OCD, including exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy and SSRIs, and explain what the research shows about how these compare when used alone versus together. Finally, I describe a specific clinical protocol in which patients are guided into states of anxiety while learning to suppress compulsive responses, retraining the brain to break the OCD cycle.
Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com.
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Timestamps
(00:00:00) Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
(00:00:11) OCD Prevalence & Impact, Obsessions & Compulsions
(00:01:54) Categories: Checking, Repetition & Order; Contamination & Disgust
(00:04:30) Anxiety, Fear
(00:05:20) Sponsor: AG1
(00:06:40) Genetic Component of OCD
(00:08:45) Neural Circuitry, Cortex, Striatum, Thalamus
(00:10:16) Cortico-Striatal-Thalamic Loop; Imaging Studies, SSRIs
(00:14:30) Sponsor: Eight Sleep
(00:16:00) Diagnosis, Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS)
(00:18:00) Y-BOCS Categories, Identifying the Core Fear
(00:19:30) Tool: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) & Exposure Therapy
(00:21:39) Anxiety Tolerance, Interrupting the Compulsion
(00:23:23) Dr. Helen Blair Simpson, Ritual Prevention, Exposure Sessions
(00:25:18) CBT vs Placebo vs SSRIs
(00:26:30) Sponsor: Rorra
(00:28:07) SSRIs & Serotonin System; Psychiatry & Causality
(00:29:13) Cannabis, CBD & OCD; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
(00:31:48) Mindfulness Meditation, Holistic Treatments, NIH
(00:33:40) Nutraceuticals, Inositol; Recap & Conclusion
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