About this episode

This episode explores the biology and psychology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and discusses effective treatments.

In this Huberman Lab Essentials episode, I explain the biology and psychology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and describe the neural circuitry behind repetitive "thought-action loops," including why compulsive actions actually strengthen the underlying obsessions rather than relieve them. I discuss the most effective treatments for OCD, including exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy and SSRIs, and explain what the research shows about how these compare when used alone versus together. Finally, I describe a specific clinical protocol in which patients are guided into states of anxiety while learning to suppress compulsive responses, retraining the brain to break the OCD cycle. Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman Eight Sleep: https://eightsleep.com/huberman Rorra: https://rorra.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) (00:00:11) OCD Prevalence & Impact, Obsessions & Compulsions (00:01:54) Categories: Checking, Repetition & Order; Contamination & Disgust (00:04:30) Anxiety, Fear (00:05:20) Sponsor: AG1 (00:06:40) Genetic Component of OCD (00:08:45) Neural Circuitry…

People in this episode

Host: Huberman

Topics covered

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• neural circuitry
• treatment methods
• cognitive behavioral therapy
• anxiety management

Keywords

• OCD
• obsessions
• compulsions
• exposure therapy
• anxiety
• neural circuitry
• SSRIs
• Y-BOCS

Sponsors

AG1, Eight Sleep, Rorra

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale

Products: SSRIs, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

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