Clinical Research Studies

We are looking to enroll patients with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or Tic/Tourette’s Disorder (TD). The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the drug ondansetron (brand name Zofran) reduces symptoms and changes brain function in people with OCD or TD. Ondansetron is FDA-approved for the treatment of nausea but has been shown to reduce symptoms in people with OCD and TD in small studies. It works by blocking the transmission of a chemical in the brain (and elsewhere in the body) called serotonin, but it is unknown how this is related to symptom reductions found in patients with OCD and TD. If you participate in this study, you will be asked to take 24 mg of ondansetron, or placebo (which is a drug with no effect, like a sugar pill), every day for 4 weeks. You will also be asked to have brain scans using fMRI, which is a technology that non-invasively measures brain activity, both before and after the 4 week trial.