The American journal of psychiatry
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Long-term outcome associated with cingulotomy for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) was prospectively assessed. Findings are reported for 18 patients previously described in 1995 and for 26 new patients. ⋯ Thirty-two percent to 45% of patients previously unresponsive to medication and behavioral treatments for OCD were at least partly improved after cingulotomy. Cingulotomy remains a viable treatment option for patients with severe treatment-refractory OCD.
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Positron emission tomography (PET) was used to compare cerebral metabolic patterns in schizophrenic subjects with predominantly negative symptoms (alogia, affective flattening, avolition, and attentional impairment) and in those with predominantly positive symptoms. ⋯ Schizophrenic subjects with predominantly negative symptoms have greater metabolic abnormalities than subjects with predominantly positive symptoms, particularly in frontal, temporal, and cerebellar circuitry. These results are consistent with abnormalities in corticocortical, corticobasal ganglia, mesocortical dopamine, and cerebellar-thalamic-prefrontal circuits, which may underlie the negative symptoms of schizophrenia.