[Critical analysis of controlled pharmacologic studies in obsessive compulsive disorder]

Controlled pharmacologic studies in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are recent, scare and concern only antidepressants. Clomipramine constitutes the reference drug in the treatment of OCD and in comparative studies. The present paper includes a compendium of the results of 15 controlled studies and a critical approach of their methodologies and conclusions. The discussion continues about the genuine anti-obsessive effect of antidepressants, its specificity and the underlying neurochemical mechanisms.