OBJECTIVE: The aim was to investigate the white matter abnormalities of drug-naive patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) using diffusion tensor-imaging and the white matter changes in the patients after pharmacotherapy.

METHOD: Thirteen drug-naive OCD patients and 13 age- and sex-matched healthy comparison subjects were examined using diffusion tensor-imaging and structural magnetic resonance imaging. Measurements were made in OCD patients before and after 12 weeks of citalopram treatment.

RESULTS: Compared with controls, the drug-naive OCD patients showed significant increases in fractional anisotropy (FA) in the corpus callosum, the internal capsule and white matter in the area superolateral to the right caudate. The increases in FA were mostly no longer observed in patients after 12 weeks of treatment compared with controls.

CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that white matter alterations are associated with the pathophysiology of OCD, and the abnormalities may be partly reversible with pharmacotherapy.