What Is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)?
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common psychiatric disorder, affecting approximately 2.2 million American adults each year.[1][2]
OCD causes afflicted individuals marked distress, occupies much of their time, and interferes with normal routines, productivity at work or school, and social relationships.[3] People with OCD often go several years without treatment. One recent study found that it took on average more than 17 years after first experiencing OCD symptoms for people to receive treatment.[4]
OCD causes people to experience unwanted, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) that can prompt them to carry out repeated actions (compulsions) to reduce the anxiety produced by those thoughts.[3] Common obsessions include excessive fear of contamination, repeated doubts (such as thinking you've harmed someone while driving), a need for ordering and symmetry, and aggressive or horrific impulses. Common compulsions include repeated cleaning (such as hand-washing), repeated checking (such as checking to see if doors are locked), and counting.[3]
Even though it may feel like an extension of normal worries, OCD is a serious, chronic and debilitating anxiety disorder.[3][5] One difference between normal worries and OCD is how much time these behaviors or rituals take out of your day, and how much distress they cause you. People with OCD recognize that their thoughts are irrational, but can't stop them.[3] Treatment with medication and specific types of behavior modification may help reduce some OCD symptoms.[5]
"People need to be more educated about OCD. Most people, even friends and family of people with OCD, think you can control OCD on your own, but it is a real and treatable disorder, and the public needs to be educated about it.
It's frustrating that people think it is a matter of will as opposed to a real disease."
- Amanda O.
References:
- ^ National Institute of Mental Health. The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders in America. Available at: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-
in-america.shtml. Accessed January 10, 2008. - ^ Kessler RC, et al. Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R). Archives of General Psychiatry. 2005;62:617-27.
- ^ American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed, text revision. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association; 2000.
- ^ Pinto A, et al. The Brown Longitudinal Obsessive Compulsive Study: clinical features and symptoms of the sample at intake. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 2006;67:703-11.
- ^ American Psychiatric Association; Koran LM, et al. Practice guideline for the treatment of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2007;164(suppl):1-56.
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