Do Obsessive-Compulsive Patients and Abstinent Heroin Addicts Share a Common Psychophysiological Mechanism?

Abstract

Background/Aim: Working memory (WM) and attentional deficits have been implicated in the pathophysiology of both obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and opioid addiction. The P300 component of event-related potentials (ERPs) is considered as an index of on-line updating of WM and/or attentional operations involved in this function. The present study aimed at comparing the P300 elicited during a WM test in patients with prolonged heroin abstinence, those with OCD and healthy controls, in order to demonstrate possibly common underlying psychophysiological mechanisms. Methods: The P300 component was evaluated during the anticipatory period of a WM test in 20 patients characterized by a past history of opioid dependence (6 months abstinence), in 18 OCD patients, and 20 healthy subjects matched for age, sex and educational level. Results: The two patient groups showed a considerable reduction of the P300 amplitudes, located at the right frontal area as compared with healthy controls. The abstinent heroin addicts exhibited a significantly lower P300 amplitude at central frontal areas and a significantly higher P300 amplitude at the left occipital region relative to the other two groups. Furthermore, the abstinent group showed a notable delay of P300 latency relative to controls and OCD patients at the right occipital region. Moreover, the OCD patients manifested a significant prolongation of P300 located at the central prefrontal area, relative to addicts and healthy controls. Conclusions: These findings point to considerable WM and/or attentional deficits in the long-term abstinent syndrome of heroin misuse and OCD associated with distributed and prefrontal cortical circuits, respectively. Furthermore, the present findings suggest that both OCD and long-term abstinent heroin addicts may share a common impairment of WM and/or attention involving or affecting the right prefrontal areas.

EEG source activity during processing of neutral stimuli in subjects with anxiety disorders

“…Higher amplitude of the P300 was observed in panic disorder (Iwanami et al 1997), OCD (Papageorgiou et al 2003, Andreou et al 2013 and PTSD (Attias et al 1996, Kimble et al 2000, Stanford et al 2001,Wessa et al 2006.…”

“…Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with a shortened (Savage et al 1994) or prolonged (Morault et al 1997) latency of the N1 wave, shortened latency of P300 (Johannes et al 2001, Miyata et al 1998, Morault et al 1997) and P3b waves (Mavrogiorgou et al 2002), and an increase of amplitude of P3b (Mavrogiorgou et al 2002) and P300 waves (Papageorgiou et al 2003). In a study of Towey and others (1990), as the difficulty of the oddball task increased, the latency of P300 wave increased among healthy individuals, while it shortened among subjects presenting with OCD.…”

Medication–overuse headache: pathophysiological insights

“…Among these features the most important are the requirement of repeated administrations during a certain period of time, the tendency to have a "craving" in the early phase of abstinence, and the occurrence of crosssensitisation among different drugs used to treat headache. In addition, the tendency to reach a status in which the assumption of the drugs is induced by a "compulsive" and stereotypical behaviour rather than by real medical needs, and the possibility to observe a relapse after relatively long periods of abstinence may resemble the characteristics of drug addiction [12].…”

Recent EEG and ERP Findings in Substance Abusers

“…In their 2003 and 2004 publications,55,56 the investigators focused on the former condition. In the 2001 publication,54 they focused on the latter.…”