Can you describe plaque a little bit more?

Well, there's LDL that gets trapped in the intima wall of the artery.

They usually, most plaque is around bifurcated areas where, you know, where an artery splits and then below it, that Y, that's where there's a lot of pressure gradients that develop.

And that's where you can see, you know, LDL getting stuck in those areas.

You know, it goes right past the endothelial lining into the next layer, the intima, and that's When that happens, then your immune system is going to respond to that.

And, you know, that you got this LDL, it's full of cholesterol and triglycerides, and you're going to have these immune system cells going to go in there and microfages, and they're going to gobble it up because they're going, this shouldn't be here.

I'm going to take care of it.

Is there any cortisol-specific things in the cardiovascular system?

What did you make of that?

Listening to both of their testimonies was really helpful because there's a public sense that OCD might just all be about contamination-based worries.

Now, in fact, the majority of people with OCD will have multiple obsessions and multiple associated compulsions.

Forty percent of people with OCD will have a contamination-based worries, but that still leaves sixty percent of people who don't.

And what Albert described is what we refer to as forbidden thought obsessions, which are typically of a sexual or violent nature.

OCD latches onto the things that you're least likely to do, the most distressing possible Types of thoughts.

And, you know, there's been studies in adult services, and we've done studies in children's services showing that those forbidden thought obsessions, it's 30% of patients roughly.

So how do we identify OCD correctly? I mean, what early signs can you look out for?

What do we know about what causes the condition?

It's not fully understood.

We know that genetics are an important contribution, and alongside genetics, we obviously look for environmental factors.

But, and really importantly, a number of the key things that people might suspect can contribute and cause OCD, like early life traumas, separations, those sorts of things, each and every effort to look at those has shown that they aren't an influence.

The reason I personally think that's really, really important is in almost every case, when I meet a family for the first time, their parents are carrying tremendous sense of guilt, "If only we hadn't got divorced, if only that particular thing hadn't happened in our family lives." And I really am at pains to say there's no evidence to support that fact.

And Bruce, you were listening along with me there, and I know you have visited the ward as well, and what did you make of that?

Listening to both of their testimonies was really helpful because there's a public sense that OCD might just all be about washing and contamination-based worries.

Now, in fact, the majority of people with OCD will have multiple obsessions and multiple associated compulsions.