Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T15:29:58.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Seven Deadly Sins and OCD

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

Dan J. Stein
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The lumping together of the seven deadly sins—pride, covetousness, jealousy, sloth, lust, gluttony, and anger—is, of course, a theological categorization rather than a medical nosology. Nevertheless, these seven sins are oddly reminiscent of various symptoms of a common medical disorder—one that has received increasing neuroscientific investigation in recent years—obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Is such a parallel between sin and symptom purely coincidental, or is modern neurobiology able to provide a more coherent explanation?

Interestingly, the term “obsession” derives from the Roman Catholic concept of obsession—a state of being possessed by the devil. Indeed, obsessions—defined as recurrent intrusive and senseless thoughts and images—are some of the most overwhelming and distressing of psychiatric symptoms. While it is true that hallucinations and delusions lead to a loss of contact with reality, people with obsessions suffer from the very fact that they cannot resist ideas that they know full well to be irrational. Thus, OCD sufferers find themselves having to perform compulsions—recurrent rituals that relieve anxiety—but which are not realistically connected to the preceding obsessions or are clearly excessive.

Type
Supplement Monograph
Information
CNS Spectrums , Volume 3 , Issue S1: New Developments in Obsessive-Compulsive and Spectrum Disorders , May 1998 , pp. 40 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1.Adams, PL. Obsessive Children: A Sociopsychiatric Study. New York: Brunner/Mazel; 1973.Google Scholar
2.Freud, S. Obsessive Actions and Religious Practices. Standard Edition. 1907;9:115–128.Google Scholar
3.Stein, DJ. The neurobiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Neuroscientist. In press.Google Scholar
4.Rassmussen, SA, Tsuang, MT. Clinical characteristics and family history in DSM-III obsessive-compulsive disorder. Am J Psychiatry. 1986;143:317–322.Google Scholar
5.Greenberg, D, Witztum, E. Cultural aspects of obsessive compulsive disorder. In: Hollander, E, Zohar, J, Marazzati, , Olivier, B, eds. Current Insights in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons; 1994.Google Scholar
6.Baxter, LR, Schwartz, JM, Bergman, KS, et al.Caudate glucose metabolic rate changes with both drug and behavior therapy for OCD. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1992;49:681–689.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Rapoport, JL, Ryland, DH, Kriete, M. Drug treatment of canine acral lick. An animal model of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1992;48:517–521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.Stein, DJ, Shoulberg, N, Helton, K, Hollander, E. The neuroethological model of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Compr Psychiatry. 1992;33:274–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9.Wise, SP, Rapoport, JL. Obsessive-compulsive disorder: Is it basal ganglia dysfunction? In: Rapoport, JL, ed. Obsessive-compulsive Disorders in Children and Adolescents. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press; 1989;327–344.Google Scholar
10.Stein, DJ, Seedat, D, Potocnik, F. Hoarding: A review. Isr J Psychaiatry Relat Sci. In press.Google Scholar
11.Frost, RO, Gross, RC. The hoarding of possessions. Behav Res Ther. 1993;31:367–381.Google Scholar
12.James, W. The Principles of Psychology, vol 2. New York: Dover Publications; 1918.Google Scholar
13.Andersson, M, Krebs, JR. On the evolution of hoarding behavior. Animal Behavior. 1978;26:707–711.Google Scholar
14.Manosevitz, M, Lindsey, G. Genetics of hoarding: a biometrical analysis. J Comp Physiol Psychol. 1967;63:142–144.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
15.Tigner, JC, Wallace, RJ. Hoarding of food and non-food items in blind, anosmic and intact albino rats. Physiol Behav. 1973;8:943–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16.Blundell, JE, Herberg, LJ. Effectiveness of lateral hypothalamic stimulation, arousal, and food deprivation in the initiation of hoarding behaviour in naive rats. Physiol Behav. 1973;10:763–767.Google Scholar
17.Kolb, B. Prefrontal lesions alter eating and hoarding behavior in rats. Physiol Behav. 1974;12:507–511.Google Scholar
18.Kolb, B. Studies on the caudate-putamen and the dorsomedial thalamic nucleus of the rat: implications for mammalian frontal-lobe functions. Physiol Behav. 1977;18:237–244Google Scholar
19.Jones, CH, McGhee, R, Wilkie, DM. Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) use spatial memory in foraging for food to hoard. Behav Process. 1990;21:179–187.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
20.Stamm, JS. Effects of cortical lesions on established hoarding activities in rats. J Comp Physiol Psychol. 1953;46:299–304.Google Scholar
21.Whishaw, IQ, Oddie, SD. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of hoarding in medial frontal cortex rats using a new behavioral paradigm. Behav Brain Res. 1989;33:255–266.Google Scholar
22.Holson, RR. Mesial prefrontal cortical lesions and timidity in rats. I. Reactivity to aversive stimuli. Physiol Behav. 1986;37:221–260.Google Scholar
23.Kelley, AE, Stinus, L. Disappearance of hoarding behavior after 6-hydroxydopamine lesions of the mesolimbic dopamine neurons and its reinstatement with I-dopa. Behavioral Neurosci. 1985;99:531–545.Google Scholar
24.Herman, JP, Choulli, K, Geffard, M, et al.Reinnervation of the nucleus accumbens and frontal cortex of the rat by dopaminergic grafts and effects on hoarding behavior. Brain Res. 1986;372:210–216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
25.Kalsbeek, A, De Bruin, JPC, Feenstra, MGP, et al.Neonatal thermal lesions of the mesolimhocortical dopaminergic projection decrease food-hoarding behavior. Brain Res. 1988;475:80–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
26.Nishita, JK, Dougherty, GG, Ellinwood, EH Jr, et al.Effects of chronic chlorimipramine and imipramine administration on food hoarding behavior in male rats. Res Commun Psychol Psychiatry Behav. 1990;15:115–128.Google Scholar
27.Cornwell, JC, Palfai, T, Young, T, et al.Impaired hoarding and olfactory learning in DSP-4-treated rats and control cagemates. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 1990;36:707–711.Google Scholar
28.Dubois, B, Mayo, W, Agid, Y, et al.Profound disturbances of spontaneous and learned behaviors following lesions of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis in the rat. Brain Res. 1985;338:249–258.Google Scholar
29.McNamara, P, Durso, R. Reversible pathological jealousy (Othello syndrome) associated with amantadine. J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol. 1991;4:157–159.Google Scholar
30.Jaspers, K. Eifersuchtswahn. Zeitschrift zur Gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatric. 1910;1:567–637.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
31.White, GK, Mullen, PE. Jealousy: Theory, Research and Clinical Strategies. New York: Guilford Press, 1989.Google Scholar
32.Kraft-Ebbing, R von. Ueber Eifersuchtswahn beim Manne. J Psychiat. Neurol. 1892;10:212.Google Scholar
33.Stein, DJ, Hollander, E. Serotonin reuptake blockers for the treatment of obsessional jealousy. J Clin Psychiatry. 1994;55:30–33.Google ScholarPubMed
34.Cobb, JP, Marks, IM. Morbid jealousy featuring as obsessive-compulsive neurosis: treatment by behavioral psychotherapy. Br J Psychiatry. 1979;34:301–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35.Kraepelin, E. Psychiatrie: Ein Lehrbuch fur Studierende und Artze. 8th ed. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth; 1910.Google Scholar
36.Dupouy, R, Courtois, A, Borel, J. Delire de jalousie chez un parkinsonien postencephalitique. Ann Med Psychol. 1932;90:49–54.Google Scholar
37.McNamara, RK, Whishaw, IQ. Blockade of hoarding in rats by diazepam: an analysis of the anxiety and object value hypotheses of hoarding. Psychopharmacology. 1990;101:214–221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
38.Rachman, SJ. Primary obsessional slowness. Behav Res Ther. 1974;12:9–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
39.Veale, D. Classification and treatment of obsessional slowness. Br J Psychiatry. 1993;162:198–203.Google Scholar
40.Hymas, N, Lees, A, Bolton, D, Epps, K, Head, D. The neurology of obsessional slowness. Brain. 1991;114:2203–2333.Google Scholar
41.Saint-Cyr, JA, Taylor, AE, Kicholson, K. Behavior and the basal ganglia. In: Weiner, WJ, Lang, AE, eds. Behavioral Neurology of Movement Disorders. New York: Raven Press; 1995.Google Scholar
42.Stein, DJ, Hollander, E. Impulsive aggression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychiatric Ann. 1993;23:389–395.Google Scholar
43.Freud, S. The disposition to obsessional neurosis. A contribution to the problem of choice of neurosis. In: The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol 12. London: Hogarth Press; 1913.Google Scholar
44.Manchandra, R, Sethi, BB, Gupta, SC. Hostility and guilt in obsessive-compulsive neurosis. Br J Psychiatry. 1979;135:52–54.Google Scholar
45.Millar, DG. Hostile emotion and obsessional neurosis. Psychol Med. 1983;13:813–819.Google Scholar
46.Hoehn-Saric, R, Barksdale, VC. Impulsiveness in obsessive-compulsive patients. Br J Psychiatry. 1983;143:177–182.Google Scholar
47.Thomsen, PH, Jensen, J. Latent class analysis of organic aspects of obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1991;84:391–395.Google Scholar
48.Hollander, E, Greenwald, S, Neville, D, et al.Uncomplicated and comorbid obsessive-compulsive disorder in epidemiological sample. Depression and Anxiety. 1996–1997;4:111–119.Google Scholar
49.Shapiro, AK, Shapiro, E, Young, G, et al.Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome. New York: Raven Press; 1988.Google Scholar
50.Kernberg, O. Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism. New Jersey: Jason Aronson; 1985.Google Scholar
51.Stein, DJ, Keating, J, Zar, HJ, Hollander, E. A survey of the phenomenology and pharmacotherapy of compulsive and impulsive symptoms in Prader-Willi syndrome. J Neuropsych Clin Newosci. 1994;6:23–29.Google Scholar
52.Lopez-Ibor, JJ Jr.Impulse control in obsessive-compulsive disorder: a biopsychopathological approach. Prog Neuro-Psychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 1990;14:709–718.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
53.Zohar, J, Mueller, EA, Insel, TR, et al.Serotonergic responsivity in obsessive-compulsive disorder comparison of patients and healthy controls. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1987:44;946–951.Google Scholar
54.Hollander, E, DeCaria, C, Nitescu, A, et al.Serotonergic function in obsessive compulsive disorder: behavioral and neuroendocrine responses to oral m-CPP and fenfluramine in patients and healthy volunteers. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1992;49:21–28.Google Scholar
55.Stein, DJ, Hollander, E, Anthony, D, et al.Serotonergic medications for sexual obsessions, sexual addictions, and paraphilias. J Clin Psychiatry. 1992b;53:267–271.Google ScholarPubMed
56.Leckman, JF, Goodman, WK, Riddle, MA, et al.Low CSF 5HIAA and obsessions of violence: report of two cases. Psychiatry Res. 1990;33:95–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
57.Eslinger, PJ, Damasio, AR. Severe disturbance of higher cognition after bilateral frontal lobe ablation: patient EVR. Neurology. 1985;35:1731–1741.Google Scholar
58.Farid, BT. Irritability and resistance in obsessional neuroses. Psychopathol. 1986;19:289–293.Google Scholar
59.American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 4th ed. Revised. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association; 1994.Google Scholar
60.Kafka, MP. Successful antidepressant treatment of non-paraphilic sexual addictions and paraphilias in men. J Clin Psychiatry. 1991;52:60–65.Google Scholar
61.Stein, DJ, Hollander, E, Anthony, D, et al.Serotonergic medications for sexual obsessions, sexual addictions, and paraphilis. J Clin Psychiatry. 1992:53:267–271.Google Scholar
62.Prader, A, Labhart, A, Willi, H. Ein syndrom von adipositas, kleinwuchs, kryptochismus und oligophrenie nach myatonieartigem zustand im neugeborenenalter. Schweizerische Medizinische Wochenschrift. 1956;86:1260–1261.Google Scholar
63.Holm, VA. The diagnosis of Prader-Willi syndrome. In: Holm, VA, Sulzbacher, SJ, Pipes, P, eds. Prader-Willi Syndrome. Baltimore: University Park Press; 1981;27–44.Google ScholarPubMed
64.Selikowitz, M, Sunman, J, Pendergast, A, Wright, S. Fenfluramine in Prader-Willi sydnrome: a double-blind, placebo controlled trial. Arch Dis Childhood. 1990;65:112–114.Google Scholar
65.Dech, B, Budow, L. The use of fluoxetine in an adolescent with Prader-Willi syndrome. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1991;30:298–302.Google Scholar
66.Warnock, TK, Kestenbaum, T. Pharmacological treatment of severe skin picking behaviors in Prader-Willi syndrome. Two case reports. Arch Dermatol. 1992;128:1623–1625.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
67.Hsu, LKG, Kaye, W, Weltzin, T. Are the eating disorders related to obsessive compulsive disorder, Int J Eating Disorder. 1993;14:305–318.Google Scholar