Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2009 Jun;33(6):818-30.
doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2009.01.003. Epub 2009 Jan 21.

Paediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder, a neurodevelopmental disorder? Evidence from neuroimaging

Chaim Huyser  1 , Dick J Veltman, Else de Haan, Frits Boer
Affiliations
Review

Paediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder, a neurodevelopmental disorder? Evidence from neuroimaging

Chaim Huyser et al. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2009 Jun.

Abstract

Objective: To present an overview of neuroimaging data on paediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and discuss implications for further research.

Method: Medline PsycINFO databases and reference lists were searched for relevant articles. All neuroimaging studies up to October 1, 2008 involving children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder were included.

Results: Twenty-eight neuroimaging studies using various neuroimaging techniques (CT (2) MRI (15) MRS (8) and SPECT (2) fMRI (2) but no PET or DTI) including a total of 462 paediatric patients were identified. A number of findings indicate a dysfunction of the prefrontal-striatal-thalamic circuit with the involvement of other basal ganglia structures (putamen globus pallidus) and the thalamus in contrast to adult studies which report mainly involvement of the caudate nucleus and orbitofrontal cortex. Several findings point at an aberrant development of the brain in paediatric OCD, patients when compared with healthy controls.

Conclusion: Neuroimaging studies have contributed to our understanding of the neurobiological basis of paediatric OCD. This review provides an agenda for further theory driven research in particular aimed at identifying a critical window of abnormal maturation of prefrontal-striatal-thalamic and limbic circuitry in paediatric OCD patients.

PubMed Disclaimer