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Obsessive compulsive disorder in huntington disease: a case of isolated obsessions successfully treated with
1Department Neurology, Psychiatry, Ruhr-University, Bochum, Germany. Tanja.Patzold@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
Objective:
To report about a patient with Huntington disease (HD) in combination with obsessions who was successfully treated with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.
Background:
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) has rarely been reported in association with HD, and little is known about the treatment of patients with OCD symptoms and HD.
Methods:
We describe a 42-year-old woman who experienced isolated obsessive thoughts about killing her neighbor 10 years after the onset of her genetically confirmed HD.
Results:
Sertraline was prescribed at a daily dose of 150 mg with a complete remission of obsessive ideas within 4 weeks of treatment.
Conclusions:
The basal ganglia are known to play an important role in the pathogenesis of OCD and HD. Thus, it is conceivable that a degeneration of the caudate nucleus as in HD may also account for obsessive and compulsive symptoms in this disorder. To our knowledge, this is the first report about a patient with HD in combination with obsessions alone who was successfully treated with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. However, the association of OCD with HD warrants further systematic evaluation.
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