Will drugs used to treat OCD help prevent addictive behaviours?

Answer 1

In my opinion the answer to this question would be yes, OCD drugs would be effective against addictive behaviors. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder's key features (occording to the DSM IV) include "obsessions (persistent, often irrational, and seemingly uncontrollable thoughts)" and "compulsions (actions which are used to neutralize the obsessions)". An example could be someone who is obsessed with germs and being clean, so therefore compulsively washes his hands, uses tissues to pick things up etc. He uses the actions to help calm or neutralize the thoughts.

Addiction or dependency (to drugs for example) can be defined as an obsession with the drug or being high, or even with another unpleasant feeling like anxiety, and the compulsion to use the substance to alleviate or neutralize that obsession. Addicts often describe their use as self-medicating. They may describe themselves as always being "stressed" or feeling "not-normal" until they use their drug of choice to "fix" the problem.

So if OCD behavior can be helped by medications such as certain selective seratonin re-uptake inhibitors, then so would addictive behavior since they are really one-and-the-same. Now would the meds. prevent addictive behaviors? That suggests that you are trying to stop behaviors that have not happened yet, and in the case of addiction where the behavior supplies the diagnosis, that just may not be possible.