P458. Differences in Dendritic Spine Density in Post-Mortem Brains of Individuals With Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Healthy Controls

Abstract

The cellular and molecular pathogenesis of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is largely unknown, but brain imaging studies have suggested that hyperactivity in decision-making regions of the brain, specifically the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), is associated with OCD symptoms. Recent work has shown significant differences in the expression of excitatory genes in human patients with OCD compared to unaffected comparison subjects using post-mortem samples from the University of Pittsburgh Brain Tissue Donation Program.