Three cases with chronic obsessive compulsive disorder report gains in wellbeing and function following rituximab treatment

Abstract

Immunological aetiology is supported for a subgroup with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and conceptualized as autoimmune OCD. The longitudinal clinical course is detailed for three severely ill cases with OCD and indications of immunological involvement with off-label rituximab treatment every six months. All cases showed clear and sustained gains regarding symptom burden and function for over 2.5 years. Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory Scale scores decreased 67-100% and 44-92%, respectively. These complex cases, prior to rituximab, had very low functioning and disease duration has been eight, nine and 16 years respectively. All three patients had been unsuccessfully treated with at least two antidepressants or anxiolytics, one neuroleptic and cognitive behavioural therapy. Clinical phenotypes and findings were suggestive of possible autoimmune OCD. Indirect immunohistochemistry detected cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) antibodies in all three cases including a novel anti-neuronal staining pattern against mouse thalamic cells. Exploratory analyses of CSF markers and proteomics identified elevated levels of sCD27 and markers indicative of complement pathway activation when compared to CSF from healthy controls. Multidisciplinary collaboration, advanced clinical investigations and rituximab treatment are feasible in a psychiatric setting. The case histories provide a proof of principle for the newly proposed criteria for autoimmune OCD. The findings suggest that clinical red flags and biological measures may predict rituximab response in chronic treatment-resistant OCD. The report provides orientation that may inform the hypotheses and design of future treatment trials.