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Sufferers of a common psychiatric illness can make a conscious decision to change their biology.

Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder can change their brain activity through cognitive behavioral therapy over the course of a year, according to a recent UCLA study.

The same researchers, hailing from the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and biobehavioral sciences department, are now furthering their study to determine whether the changes can be made in as little as three weeks.

A common anxiety disorder, OCD affects 2 to 3 percent of the population and is characterized by irrational fears and compulsive rituals that may take over an hour a day to complete.

The illness also has a likely genetic component, based on studies of monozygotic twins who were found to share the disorder 60 percent of the time.

“Our study has shown that biology is not destiny – human will can overcome it. It’s very empowering,” said Eda Gorbis, an assistant clinical professor at NPI.

People with OCD tend to have higher metabolic activity in certain areas of the brain.

It has long been known that this activity could be reduced in some individuals by drug therapy. But the question of whether cognitive behavioral therapy could have the same impact was unknown.

The therapy in this study includes two main themes and is given in an intense, five-days-a-week program.

The first theme is exposure treatment where the subject is placed in a stressful situation but is not allowed to react compulsively.

For example, one subject, who has an irrational fear of germs and is compulsive about washing, said he was asked to touch dirty objects such as shoes and then not allowed to wash his hands.

The cognitive approach of the therapy consists of examining why these fears exist and helping the subject to see – if he or she does not already, – that they are unfounded and irrational.

Under this intensive cognitive behavioral therapy, 75 percent of the subjects experienced a change in symptoms in as little as three weeks, said Sanjaya Saxena, an assistant professor in psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences.

The therapy has had tremendous impact on many of the subjects who participated, many of whom did not respond to drug therapy.

In some cases, the disorder prevented the patients from maintaining a job and leading normal lives because of their compulsions.

“For me, the study has been life-changing and the right thing to work on,” said one subject, who wished to remain unidentified. “It’s a very strange disease to watch yourself doing nonsense.”

Some of the subjects suffered from such extreme cases of OCD that they were referred to the study by the Fire or Health Department because their symptoms were causing potential hazards.

Hoarding, a common symptom of OCD, causes an individual to compulsively retain large amounts of a certain item, such as old magazines or plastic bags.

Eventually, as was the case for many of the subjects, the person aggregated so much of the object, it created a fire hazard by blocking the hallways and entrances of his or her home.

Many of these subjects would not only keep their old magazines but would also retrieve magazines they would find in other people’s trash cans, Saxena said.

If the researchers find in the current study that brain patterns can be changed in as little as three weeks, the results will likely impact the treatments of other psychiatric disorders as well.

“If we find what we’re looking for, short-term therapy could be the answer to psychiatric disorders,” Gorbis said. “It eliminates the dangers of drug therapy,” she added.

With the finding that people can alter their brain metabolic activities through their actions, Gorbis believes sufferers of OCD will give much more credence to free will and will have more faith that they can overcome the idiosyncrasies of their biological make-up.

Gorbis and Saxena are currently looking for additional subjects to participate in their free study.

For more information about participating in the study, please visit http://hope4OCD.com.