Abstract

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is the fourth common disorder. It is accompanied with repetitive thoughts or behaviors, or even both that can impair personal and social life. Until recent years, it was very difficult and often unsuccessful and has been associated with recurrence. In the past, there was no precise understanding of the pathophysiology of mental diseases until recent years, using advanced molecular techniques such as genomics, proteomics and metabolomics. Great transformation in the understanding of this type of disease is ongoing. This article presents a mini-review on obsessive-compulsive disorder and related aspects to provide a better understanding of this complex disease. More than 100 scientific articles from different sources including Science Direct, Elsevier, Google Scholar, Springer and Pubmed were chosen from 1984 to 2015 for this aim. Studies have been shown that the cause of this disease is multi-factorial. Variety of genes and environmental factors play significant role. In fact, dopamine, serotonin and glutarmatic pathway genes are closely related to these phenotypes. In addition, environmental factors can be refers to teratogenic factors during fetal development or soon after birth, or even certain bacterial infections and brain injury. Either medication or behavior therapy and sometimes both are the options for OCD treatment. The WHO has named it as the tenth paralyzing anxiety disease. © 2015, Semnan University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.