A 19-year-old man working as a driver comes to Psychiatrist with excessive anxiety and fear. He repos that every time he drives over a bump in the road, he is convinced that he has accidentally run over a small child. He has to pull over and check underneath his car for blood and retrace his driving route to look for any injured children. As a result, he is always late for work.He also has intrusive thoughts about stabbing his coworkers.He prays to try to erase these thoughts from his mind, but this rarely helps. First-line pharmacological treatment of this patient's condition primarily affects which of the following neurotransmitters?
Patient's behavior is suggestive of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Although multiple neurotransmitters and regulatory mechanisms are thought to contribute to the clinical expression of OCD ,serotonin is the primary pharmacological target. First-line treatment is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor(SSRI) antidepressant.
Acetylcholine
Dopamine
Norepinephrine
Serotonin
Neurotic, Stress Related and Somatoform Disorders