The Huberman Lab podcast is hosted by Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the department of neurobiology, and by courtesy, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford School of Medicine. The podcast discusses neuroscience and science-based tools, including how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health, as well as existing and emerging tools for measuring and changing how our nervous system works. Huberman has made numerous significant contributions to the fields of brain development, brain function, and neural plasticity, which is the ability of our nervous system to rewire and learn new behaviors, skills, and cognitive functioning. He is a McKnight Foundation and Pew Foundation Fellow and was awarded the Cogan Award, given to the scientist making the most significant discoveries in the study of vision, in 2017. Work from the Huberman Laboratory at Stanford School of Medicine has been published in top journals, including Nature, Science, and Cell, and has been featured in TIME, BBC, Scientific American, Discover, and other top media outlets. In 2021, Dr. Huberman launched the Huberman Lab podcast. The podcast is frequently ranked in the top 10 of all podcasts globally and is often ranked #1 in the categories of Science, Education, and Health & Fitness.
Curated by: Andrew Huberman (417 videos)
In this Huberman Lab Essentials episode, I explain the biology and psychology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and describe the neural circuitry behind repetitive "thought-action loops," including why compulsive actions actually strengthen the underlying obsessions rather than relieve them. I discuss the most effective treatments for OCD, including exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy and SSRIs, and explain what the research shows about how these compare when used alone versus together. Finally, I describe a specific clinical protocol in which patients are guided into states of anxiety while learning to suppress compulsive responses, retraining the brain to break the OCD cycle. Show notes: https://go.hubermanlab.com/QiyKONh Watch more Huberman Lab Essentials: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPNW_gerXa4OGNy1yE-W9IX-tPu-tJa7S&si=a1_sA7rUT-fE0OM5 Follow Huberman Lab Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hubermanlab Threads: https://www.threads.net/@hubermanlab X: https://x.com/hubermanlab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hubermanlab TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hubermanlab LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-huberman Website: https://www.hubermanlab.com Newsletter: https://www.hubermanlab.com/newsletter Timestamps 00:00:00 Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) 00:00:11 OCD Prevalence & Impact, Obsessions & Compulsions 00:01:54 Categories: Checking, Repetition & Order; Contamination & Disgust 00:04:30 Anxiety, Fear; Genetic Component of OCD 00:07:39 Neural Circuitry, Cortex, Striatum, Thalamus 00:09:56 Cortico-Striatal-Thalamic Loop; Imaging Studies, SSRIs 00:11:02 Diagnosis, Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) 00:14:16 Y-BOCS Categories, Identifying the Core Fear 00:16:30 Tool: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) & Exposure Therapy 00:18:36 Anxiety Tolerance, Interrupting the Compulsion 00:20:46 Dr. Helen Blair Simpson, Ritual Prevention, Exposure Sessions 00:22:20 CBT vs Placebo vs SSRIs; Combining Treatments 00:24:12 SSRIs & Serotonin System; Psychiatry & Causality 00:25:59 Cannabis, CBD & OCD; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) 00:27:53 Mindfulness Meditation, Holistic Treatments, NIH 00:30:00 Nutraceuticals, Inositol; Recap & Conclusion #hubermanlab #science Disclaimer & Disclosures: https://www.hubermanlab.com/disclaimer