The Science & Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

**Andrew Huberman** (0:00)
Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, we are talking about obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD. We are also going to talk about obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, which, as you will soon learn, is distinct from obsessive-compulsive disorder. In fact, many people that refer to themselves or others as obsessive or compulsive or, quote, unquote, having OCD or OCD about this or OCD about that do not have clinically diagnosable OCD. Rather, many people have obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. However, there are many people in the world that have actual OCD. And for those people, there's a tremendous amount of suffering. In fact, OCD turns out to be number seven on the list of most debilitating illnesses, not just psychiatric illnesses, but of all illnesses, which is remarkable and somewhat frightening. The good news is, thanks to the fields of psychiatry, psychology and science in general, there are now excellent treatments for OCD. We're going to talk about those treatments today. Those treatments range from behavioral therapies to drug therapies and brain stimulation, and even some of the more holistic or natural therapies. As you'll soon learn, for certain people, they may want to focus more on the behavioral therapies, whereas for others, more on the drug-based therapies and so on and so forth. One extremely interesting and important thing I learned from this episode is that the particular sequence that behavioral and or drug and or holistic therapies are applied is extremely important. In fact, the outcomes of studies often depend on whether or not people start on drug treatment and then follow with cognitive behavioral treatment or vice versa. We're going to go into all those details and how they relate to different types of OCD because it turns out there are indeed different types of obsessions and compulsions and the age of onset for OCD and so on and so forth. What I can assure you is by the end of this episode, you'll have a much greater understanding of what OCD is and what it isn't and what obsessive compulsive personality disorder is and what it is not. And you'll have a rich array of different therapy options to explore in yourself or in others that are suffering from OCD. And if neither you or others that you know suffer from OCD or obsessive compulsive personality disorder, the information covered in today's episode will also provide insight into how the brain and nervous system translate thought into action generally. And also you're going to learn a lot about goal-directed behavior generally. My hope is that by the end of the episode, you will both understand a lot about this disease state that we call OCD. You will have access to information that will allow you to direct treatments to yourself or others in better ways. And that you will gain greater insight into how you function and how human beings function in general. The Huberman Lab podcast is proud to announce that we've partnered with Momentous Supplements. We've done that for several reasons. First of all, the quality of their supplements is exceedingly high. Second of all, we wanted to have a location where you could find all of the supplements discussed on the Huberman Lab podcast in one easy to find place. You can now find that place at livemomentous.com/huberman.
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Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens is an all-in-one vitamin mineral probiotic drink. I've been taking Athletic Greens since 2012, so I'm delighted that they're sponsoring the podcast. The reason I started taking Athletic Greens and the reason I still take Athletic Greens once or twice a day is that it helps me cover all of my basic nutritional needs. It makes up for any deficiencies that I might have. In addition, it has probiotics, which are vital for microbiome health. I've done a couple of episodes now on the so-called gut microbiome and the ways in which the microbiome interacts with your immune system, with your brain to regulate mood, and essentially with every biological system relevant to health throughout your brain and body. With Athletic Greens, I get the vitamins I need, the minerals I need, and the probiotics to support my microbiome. If you'd like to try Athletic Greens, you can go to athleticgreens.com/huberman and claim a special offer. They'll give you five free travel packs plus a year's supply of vitamin D3 K2. There are a ton of data now showing that vitamin D3 is essential for various aspects of our brain and body health. Even if we're getting a lot of sunshine, many of us are still deficient in vitamin D3. And K2 is also important because it regulates things like cardiovascular function, calcium in the body and so on. Again, go to athleticgreens.com/huberman to claim the special offer of the five free travel packs and the year supply of vitamin D3 K2. Today's episode is also brought to us by Element. Element is an electrolyte drink that has everything you need and nothing you don't. That means the exact ratios of electrolytes are in Element and those are sodium, magnesium and potassium, but it has no sugar. I've talked many times before on this podcast about the key role of hydration and electrolytes for nerve cell function, neuron function, as well as the function of all the cells and all the tissues and organ systems of the body. If we have sodium, magnesium and potassium present in the proper ratios, all of those cells function properly and all our bodily systems can be optimized. If the electrolytes are not present and if hydration is low, we simply can't think as well as we would otherwise. Our mood is off. Hormone systems go off. Our ability to get into physical action, to engage in endurance and strength and all sorts of other things is diminished. So with element, you can make sure that you're staying on top of your hydration and that you're getting the proper ratios of electrolytes. If you'd like to try element, you can go to drink element that's lmnt.com/huberman, and you'll get a free element sample pack with your purchase. They're all delicious. So again, if you want to try element, you can go to elementlmnt.com/huberman.