Insight in obsessive-compulsive disorder: conception, clinical characteristics, neuroimaging, and treatment

Yueqi Huang; Yazhu Weng; Lan Lan; Cheng Zhu; Ting Shen; Wenxin Tang; Hsin-Yi Lai

doi:10.1093/psyrad/kkad025

Insight in obsessive-compulsive disorder: conception, clinical characteristics, neuroimaging, and treatment

Psychoradiology. 2023 Nov 8:3:kkad025. doi: 10.1093/psyrad/kkad025. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yueqi Huang¹, Yazhu Weng², Lan Lan³, Cheng Zhu¹, Ting Shen⁴, Wenxin Tang¹, Hsin-Yi Lai^{1

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Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Affiliated Mental Health Center and Hangzhou Seventh People's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310007, China.
² Fourth Clinical School of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou 310053, China.
³ Department of Psychology and Behavior Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
⁴ Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104, PA, USA.
⁵ Department of Neurology of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310029, China.
⁶ MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science and Brain-Machine Integration, State Key Laboratory of Brain-machine Intelligence, School of Brain Science and Brain Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 311121, China.
⁷ College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.

Abstract

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic disabling disease with often unsatisfactory therapeutic outcomes. The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) has broadened the diagnostic criteria for OCD, acknowledging that some OCD patients may lack insight into their symptoms. Previous studies have demonstrated that insight can impact therapeutic efficacy and prognosis, underscoring its importance in the treatment of mental disorders, including OCD. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in understanding the influence of insight on mental disorders, leading to advancements in related research. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is dearth of comprehensive reviews on the topic of insight in OCD. In this review article, we aim to fill this gap by providing a concise overview of the concept of insight and its multifaceted role in clinical characteristics, neuroimaging mechanisms, and treatment for OCD.

Keywords: insight; mental health; neuroimaging; obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Publication types

Review