Scrupulosity
Little evidence is available on the use of medications to treat scrupulosity. Although serotonergic medications are often used to treat OCD, studies of pharmacologic treatment of scrupulosity in particular have produced so few results that even tentative recommendations cannot be made.
Biology of obsessive–compulsive disorder
Abnormal affect in OCD has been hypothesized to result from dysfunction in the OFC, ventral striatum, and amygdala. OCD is characterized by high levels of anxiety, high rates of comorbidity with major depressive disorder, and blunted response to reward. This is reflected by reduced amygdala and ventral striatum response to positive stimuli, and elevated amygdala response to fearful stimuli. Furthermore, deep brain stimulation of the nucleus accumbens is an effective treatment of OCD, and symptom improvement correlates with reduced binding of dopamine receptors. The reduced binding, due to the ability of the radioligand tracers to be displaced by endogenous dopamine, is taken to reflect increased basal dopamine release. Affective dysregulation due to blunted reward, and elevated fear sensitivity may promote compulsivity by assigning excessive motivational salience to avoidance behavior.