Editorial: Advances in Biological Approaches to Treating Resistant/Refractory Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a severe and debilitating neuropsychiatric condition that has an estimated lifetime prevalence of 2.5–3.0% of the general population (1). Approximately 40% of patients treated for OCD do not respond to standard and second-line augmentation treatments (2). Treatment-refractory OCD tends to have a chronic and disabling course. Although psychological interventions, namely exposure and response prevention (ERP), have been shown to be effective in treating OCD and as an augmentation strategy for poor response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (3), many patients cannot engage in exposure therapy or do not respond to such treatments. Some patients with OCD also have adverse reactions to SSRIs and this makes alternative biological options for treating OCD more attractive. With increasing interest in biological therapies for OCD such as deep brain stimulation (DBS), it is important that advances in biological approaches to treating treatment resistant OCD are evaluated.