Neurocognitive Endophenotypes of OCD

Abstract

In this chapter, I address the concept of endophenotypes for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Endophenotypes are objective and heritable quantitative traits hypothesized to be more biologically tractable than distal clinical phenotypes. This approach has been adopted to gain a better understanding of psychiatric conditions in general. It is theorized that endophenotypes will particularly assist in clarifying both the diagnostic status and aetiological origins of complex neuropsychiatric conditions such as OCD. At the cognitive level, separable constructs of relevance for OCD have been identified. The prevailing model for OCD assumes the development of abnormalities within fronto-striatal neural circuits leading to impairment of executive functions and their neuropsychological subcomponents. Here, I address whether this model can guide towards the identification of endophenotypes for this condition and discuss possible implications.

Keywords: Endophenotype; Executive functions; Obsessive-compulsive disorder.