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Background: Many theories have been proposed to explain the etiology of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), but neuroimaging studies suggest neurodegeneration as a possible cause. Neurodegenerative diseases may cause a reduction in the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and the ganglion cell complex (GCC), and these changes can be detected by optical coherence tomography (OCT). The aim of this study was to examine the potential relationship between OCT findings and the clinical features of patients with OCD versus the findings for a healthy control (HC) group.
Methods: Patients with OCD (n=42) and HC subjects (n=50) completed sociodemographic, Beck Anxiety Inventory, and Beck Depression Inventory forms and underwent OCT. Patients undertook clinical interviews for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) (SCID-I) and Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale scores, whereas the HC group interviews used the SCID non-patient version.
Results: The RNFL and GCC values were significantly lower in the OCD than in the HC group (p<0.05). The GCC mean value indicated a significant and independent effect in distinguishing the OCD from the HC group (p<0.05). A significant positive correlation was observed between the age of onset of OCD and the GCC mean value (p<0.05). A significant negative correlation was observed between the untreated duration and the GCC mean value (p<0.05).
Conclusions: Neurodegeneration may manifest itself particularly as changes in the GCC volume and RNFL, and treatment may be neuroprotective in OCD. These findings may have implications for the neurobiology of OCD, its treatment considerations, and the course of the disease.
To cite this article: Onur Sahmelikoglu O, Acar Akarsu OP, Onur IU. Optical Coherence Tomography Findings in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: A preliminary Receiver Operating Characteristic Analysis On Ganglion Cell Layer Volume for Neurodegeneration. Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology 2020;30(3):297-306