OCD - symptoms, explanations, and treatments

• Behavioural symptoms

  Compulsions

  • Actions that are carried out repeatedly. The same behaviour is repeated in a ritualistic way to reduce anxiety.

  Avoidance

  • The OCD is managed by avoiding situations that trigger anxiety, ex. sufferers who repeatedly wash their hands may avoid germs.
• Emotional symptoms

  Anxiety and distress

  • Obsessive thoughts are unpleasant and frightening, and can come with overwhelming anxiety.

  Guilt and disgust

  • Irrational guilt, for example over a minor moral issue, or disgust which is directed towards oneself or something external like dirt.
• Cognitive symptoms

  Obsessive thoughts

  • About 90% of OCD sufferers have these, e.g. intrusive thoughts about being contaminated by germs or dirt.

  Insight into excessive anxiety

  • Awareness that thoughts and behaviour are irrational. In spite of this, sufferers experience catastrophic thoughts and are hypervigilant.
• Genetic explanations

  • Candidate genes - some genes create a vulnerability for OCD - like serotonin and dopamine.
  • OCD is polygenic - it is not cause by one gene but several. Taylor found up to 230 genes implicit in OCD.
  • Different types of OCD - a group of genes may cause OCD for one person, but a different group of genes may for another. Evidence suggests this may be the result of particular genetic variations, like hoarding vs. religious obsession.
• Neural explanations


  Low levels of serotonin lowers mood

  • means that normal transmission of mood-relevant information doesn't take place and mood is affected.

  Decision making in frontal lobes impaired

  • May be associated with abnormal functioning of the lateral frontal lobes.

  Parahippocampal gyrus dysfunction

  • Evidence suggests that the left side of this, associating with processing unpleasant emotions, is abnormally functioning in OCD.