Obsessive-compulsive disorder

• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)


  A disorder with two main components: obsessions (intrusive and recurrent thoughts) and compulsions (repetitive rituals)
• Obsession


  An intrusive and recurrent thought
• Compulsion


  A repetitive ritual or behavior
• The purpose of compulsive behaviors is to suppress obsessive thoughts or reduce the anxiety caused by them
• Obsessive thoughts


  • Fear of deliberately harming yourself
  • Fear of harming others
  • Fear of illness or infection
  • Strong desire for order and symmetry
• Compulsive behaviors


  • Excessive hand washing
  • Repeatedly checking things
  • Putting things in order
  • Repeating certain words
  • Repetitive counting
• Compulsive behaviors can affect the lives of others around the person with OCD, like waiting for them to complete their rituals
• Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders in the DSM

  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)
  • Hoarding Disorder
  • Trichotillomania (hair pulling disorder)
  • Excoriation (skin picking) disorder
  • Substance/medication-induced obsessive-compulsive and related disorder
• Difference between Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Impulse Control Disorder (ICD)

  OCD involves compulsivity (repetitive behaviors), while ICD involves impulsivity (acting prematurely without foresight)
• Impulsivity refers to actions that are poorly conceived, prematurely expressed, unduly risky or inappropriate, often resulting in undesirable outcomes
• Compulsivity refers to repetitive behaviors performed according to certain rules or to achieve a desired end state
• Impulsivity refers to making decisions without considering the consequences
• Compulsivity refers to repetitive behaviors that are performed according to certain rules or in a stereotypical fashion
• Impulsivity and compulsivity may be good
• Hoarding disorder


  Collecting and keeping a large number of items that have little or no value
• Items hoarded


  • Rubbish
  • Things with no real value
• Hoarding leaves homes cluttered and unhygienic
• Hoarding disorder negatively affects relationships
• Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD)

  Obsessive focus on perceived flaws in physical appearance
• People with BDD see imperfections that are not actually there
• BDD results in compulsive behaviors like excessive mirror checking and grooming
• Case study of boy with OCD

  • Took 3 hours to shower, 2 hours to get dressed
  • Left school due to rituals
  • Had only 1 friend
• MOCI (Maudsley Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory)

  30-item true/false scale to assess OCD symptoms
• 1. BOCS (Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale)

  Semi-structured interview to measure time, resistance, and distress of obsessions and compulsions
• 1. BOCS score of 16 or above indicates clinical range of OCD
• Obsessions and compulsions covered in Y-BOCS include aggressive, contamination, sexual, hoarding, religious, symmetry, body focus, cleaning, washing, checking, repeating, counting, ordering, hoarding
• Evaluating OCD measures


  • Check validity (concurrent, face, content)
  • Check reliability over time
  • Check if standardized
  • Consider advantages and disadvantages of self-report
• Self-report measures may not be the same as the questions that they ask other people
• Self-report


  You can always comment about the advantages and the disadvantages
• Most skills are self-report, some are accompanied by an interview
• In psychology, you can usually argue either way when evaluating something
• There is no hard and fast rule in most things when it comes to evaluating
• It's more of a test of your critical thinking to be able to evaluate the good and the bad in one thing
• We are often very narrow-minded, we see something and think it's always bad
• To test yourself, take something you think is bad and try to evaluate it and look for a possible positive outlook
• Explanations of OCD


  • Biomedical
  • Cognitive and behavioral
  • Psychodynamic
• Biomedical explanation


  Quite straightforward, it's always genetic or DNA
• Matheson et al. did a study with 1406 participants comprising of people with OCD and the general population
• The study found that the genes PTPRD, SLITRK3, and DRD4 are involved in regulating synapses and are linked to OCD symptoms
• OCD is not always 100% caused by genetics, there is usually a genetic component and other triggers like cognition, social environment, or behavior