Am J Psychiatry 1993; 150:460-464
Copyright © 1993 by American Psychiatric Association
CSF somatostatin in obsessive-compulsive disorder
M Altemus, T Pigott, F L'Heureux, CL Davis, DR Rubinow, DL Murphy and PW Gold
Laboratory of Clinical Science, NIMH, Bethesda, MD.
OBJECTIVE: Because the central administration of somatostatin to
experimental animals produces behaviors with some similarities to the
compulsions of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and because
serotonin reuptake inhibitors have been reported to reduce brain content of
somatostatin, the authors examined central somatostatin activity in
patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. METHOD: CSF for measurement of
somatostatin was obtained from 15 drug-free outpatients with
obsessive-compulsive disorder and 27 normal volunteers. RESULTS: The mean
CSF somatostatin level was significantly higher in the patients with
obsessive-compulsive disorder than in the normal subjects. CONCLUSIONS:
Although the functional significance of this finding is unknown, these data
are consistent with a role for somatostatin in the clinical symptomatology
of obsessive-compulsive disorder and its response to neuropharmacological
agents. The high levels of CSF somatostatin reported here in a patient
subgroup whose predominant symptoms consisted of overly focused,
perseverative thought processes are in contrast to the consistently low
levels of CSF somatostatin seen in patients with a spectrum of disorders
characterized by substantial cognitive deficits.
