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Abstract #0246

1H MRSI in the putamen and thalamus of homosexual pedophiles does not show similarities to OCD

Ruf M, Dressing H, Bailer J, Ende G, Walter S, Kief C, Sartorius A, Henn F
Central Institute of Mental Health

As pedophilia is characterized by socially deviant, repetitive, highly arousing sexual fantasies, urges and activities, it shares some phenomenological similarities with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), which is also characterized by inadequate urges and poorly inhibited, repetitive behaviors. Providing that pedophilia does indeed share neurobiological similarities with OCD we hypothesized differences in striatal N-Acetylaspartate (NAA) as previously reported for OCD patients. We conducted a 2D 1H MRSI study in 10 homosexual pedophiles compared to 10 healthy controls matched for age and education and did not find the hypothesized differences.