ReviewPharmacology & therapeutics2011
Glutamate abnormalities in obsessive compulsive disorder: neurobiology, pathophysiology, and treatment.
Review in Pharmacology & therapeutics, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 3 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 165 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
A Double-blind Study of Riluzole Augmentation in Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor-refractory Obsessive-compulsive Disorder and Depression
A Double-Blind, Placebo-controlled Pilot Study of NAC Addition to Dialectical Behavioral Therapy for the Treatment of Self-Injurious Behavior Associated With Borderline Personality Disorder
A Double-Blind Study of N-Acetylcysteine Augmentation in Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor-Refractory Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Depression
Who cites it
165 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 400 citations in OpenAlex.
- Memantine Augmentation in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.CNS drugs · 2026Pooled it
- Autoantibodies in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: a systematic review.Translational psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Glutamatergic medications as adjunctive therapy for moderate to severe obsessive-compulsive disorder in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC pharmacology & toxicology · 2021Pooled it
- Common abnormality of gray matter integrity in substance use disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder: A comparative voxel-based meta-analysis.Human brain mapping · 2021Pooled it
- Invasive and Non-invasive Neurostimulation for OCD.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2021Pooled it
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation of the medial prefrontal cortex for psychiatric disorders: a systematic review.Revista brasileira de psiquiatria (Sao Paulo, Brazil : 1999) · 2019Pooled it
- Revealing the complex genetic architecture of obsessive-compulsive disorder using meta-analysis.Molecular psychiatry · 2018Pooled it
- Genome-wide association study of obsessive-compulsive disorder.Molecular psychiatry · 2013Pooled it
- Trial
- Glutamate in Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Response to Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Randomized Clinical Trial.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2017Trial
- N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) in the Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A 16-Week, Double-Blind, Randomised, Placebo-Controlled Study.CNS drugs · 2015Trial
- In vivo effects of ketamine on glutamate-glutamine and gamma-aminobutyric acid in obsessive-compulsive disorder: Proof of concept.Psychiatry research · 2015Trial
- Riluzole augmentation in treatment-refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder: a pilot randomized placebo-controlled trial.The Journal of clinical psychiatry · 2015Trial
- Cefdinir for recent-onset pediatric neuropsychiatric disorders: a pilot randomized trial.Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology · 2015Trial
- Randomized controlled crossover trial of ketamine in obsessive-compulsive disorder: proof-of-concept.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2013Trial
- Mechanisms of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors in Treatment-Resistant Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Cortico-Striatal Circuitry, Glutamatergic Dysregulation, and Neuroplastic Constraints.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- Article
- Seroprevalence and molecular detection of Toxoplasma gondii in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: a case-control study in northern Iran.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Pharmacological Intensification Strategies in Highly Refractory Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Evidence Synthesis and a Tertiary-Care Case Series.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Vitamin D Deficiency and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Severity: A Cross-Sectional Study.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
105 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Obsessive compulsive disorder is prevalent, disabling, incompletely understood, and often resistant to current therapies. Established treatments consist of specialized cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy with medications targeting serotonergic and dopaminergic neurotransmission. However, remission is rare, and more than a quarter of OCD sufferers receive little or no benefit from these approaches, even when they are optimally delivered. New insights into the disorder, and new treatment strategies, are urgently needed. Recent evidence suggests that the ubiquitous excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate is dysregulated in OCD, and that this dysregulation may contribute to the pathophysiology of the disorder. Here we review the current state of this evidence, including neuroimaging studies, genetics, neurochemical investigations, and insights from animal models. Finally, we review recent findings from small clinical trials of glutamate-modulating medications in treatment-refractory OCD. The precise role of glutamate dysregulation in OCD remains unclear, and we lack blinded, well-controlled studies demonstrating therapeutic benefit from glutamate-modulating agents. Nevertheless, the evidence supporting some important perturbation of glutamate in the disorder is increasingly strong. This new perspective on the pathophysiology of OCD, which complements the older focus on monoaminergic neurotransmission, constitutes an important focus of current research and a promising area for the ongoing development of new therapeutics.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.