What Is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a neuro-biological illness, classified as an anxiety disorder, affecting millions. It is a potentially disabling condition that can persist throughout a person's life. The individual who suffers from OCD becomes trapped in a pattern of repetitive thoughts and behaviors that are senseless and distressing but extremely difficult to overcome. OCD occurs in a spectrum from mild to severe, but if severe and left untreated, can destroy a person's capacity to function at work, at school, or even in the home.

Possibly the most famous individual who suffered from OCD was Howard Hughes, founder of Hughes Aircraft and pioneer of advanced aircraft. Unfortunately, very little was known about OCD when he suffered from the disorder.

Before the arrival of modern medications and cognitive behavior therapy, OCD was generally thought to be untreatable. Most people with OCD continued to suffer despite years of ineffective psychotherapy. Today, luckily, treatment can help most people with OCD. Although OCD is usually completely curable only in some individuals, most people achieve meaningful and long-term symptom relief with comprehensive treatment.

TYPICAL OCD SYMPTOMS

OCD usually involves having both obsessions and compulsions, though a person with OCD may sometimes have only one or the other.

OCD symptoms can occur in people of all ages. Not all Obsessive-Compulsive behaviors represent an illness. Some rituals (e.g., bedtime songs, and religious practices) are a welcome part of daily life. Normal worries, such as contamination fears, may increase during times of stress, such as when someone in the family is sick or dying. Only when symptoms persist, make no sense, cause much distress, or interfere with functioning do they need clinical attention.

KEY FEATURES OF OCD

OBSESSIONS:

These are unwanted ideas or impulses that repeatedly well up in the mind of the person with OCD. Persistent fears that harm may come to self or a loved one, an unreasonable concern with becoming contaminated, or an excessive need to do things correctly or perfectly, are common. Again and again, the individual experiences a disturbing thought, such as, "My hands may be contaminated — I must wash, them"; "I may have left the gas on"; or "I am going to injure my child.". These thoughts are intrusive, unpleasant, and produce a high degree of anxiety. Sometimes the obsessions are of a violent or a sexual nature, or concern illness.

Some typical obsessions include: Dirt, germs and contamination; fear of acting on violent or aggressive impulses; feeling overly responsible for safety of others, abhorrent religious and sexual thoughts; inordinate concern with order, arrangement or symmetry.

COMPULSIONS:

In response to their obsessions, most people with OCD resort to repetitive behaviors called compulsions.

Some typical compulsions include: Washing and checking. Other compulsions include counting (often while performing another compulsive action such as hand washing), praying, repeating, hoarding, and endlessly rearranging objects in an effort to keep them in precise alignment with each other. Mental problems, such as mentally repeating phrases, list making, or checking are also common. These behaviors generally are intended to ward off harm to the person with OCD or others. Some people with OCD have regimented rituals while others have rituals that are complex and changing. Performing rituals may give the person with OCD some relief from anxiety, but it is only temporary.

Other illnesses that may be linked to OCD are trichotillomania (the repeated urge to pull out scalp hair, eyelashes, eyebrows or other body hair), body dysmorphic disorder (excessive preoccupation with imaginary or exaggerated defects in appearance), and hypochondria (the fear of having - despite medical evaluation and reassurance - a serious disease).

Genetic studies of OCD and other related conditions may enable scientists to pinpoint the molecular basis of these disorders.

Symptoms of OCD are seen in association with some other neurological disorders. There is an increased rate of OCD in people with Tourette's syndrome, an illness characterized by involuntary movements and vocalizations. Investigators are currently studying the hypothesis that a genetic relationship exists between OCD and the tic disorders.

People with OCD show a range of insight into the senselessness of their obsessions. Often, especially when they are not actually having an obsession, they can recognize that their obsessions and compulsions are unrealistic. At other times they may be unsure about their fears or even believe strongly in their validity.

RESISTANCE

Most people with OCD struggle to banish their unwanted, obsessive thoughts and to prevent themselves from engaging in compulsive behaviors. Many are able to keep their obsessive-compulsive behavior under control during work or school. But over the months or years, resistance may weaken, and when this happens, OCD may become so severe that time consuming rituals take over the sufferers' lives, making it impossible for them to continue activities outside the home.

SHAME AND SECRECY

OCD sufferers often attempt to hide their disorder rather than seek help. Often they are, successful in concealing their obsessive-symptoms from friends and coworkers. An unfortunate consequence of this secrecy is that people with OCD usually do not receive professional help until years after the onset of their disease. By that time, they may have learned to work their lives — and family members' lives — around the rituals.

DO I HAVE OCD?

A person with OCD has obsessive and compulsive behaviors that are extreme enough to interfere with everyday life. People with OCD should not be confused with a much larger group of individuals who are sometimes called "compulsive" because they hold themselves to a high standard of performance and are perfectionists and very organized in their work and even in recreational activities. This type of "compulsiveness" often serves a valuable purpose, contributing to a person's self-esteem and success on the job. In that respect, it differs from the life-wrecking obsessions and rituals of the person with OCD.

TREATMENT OF OCD;
PROGRESS THROUGH RESEARCH

Clinical and animal research sponsored by The National Institute of Mental Health, (NIMH) and other scientific organizations have provided information leading to behavioral treatments that can benefit the person with OCD. One patient may benefit significantly from behavior therapy, cognitive therapy, while another will benefit from pharmaceutical therapy. Some others may use both medication and behavior therapy. Others may begin with medication to gain control over their symptoms and then continue with behavior therapy. Which therapy to use should be decided by the individual patient in consultation with his or her therapist.

HOW COMMON IS OCD?

For many years, mental health professionals thought of OCD as a rare disease because only a small minority of their patients had the condition. The disorder often went unrecognized because many of those afflicted with OCD, in efforts to keep their repetitive thoughts and behaviors secret, failed to seek treatment. However, a survey conducted in the early 1980s by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) — the Federal agency that supports research nationwide on the brain, mental illnesses, and mental health - provided new knowledge about the relevance of OCD. The NIMH survey showed that OCD affects more than 2 percent of the population, meaning that OCD is -more common than such severe mental ill- nesses as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or panic disorder. OCD strikes people of all ethnic groups. Males and females are equally affected.

Although OCD symptoms typically begin during the teenage years or early adulthood, recent research shows that some children develop the illness at earlier ages, even during the preschool years. Studies indicate that at least one-third of cases of OCD in adults began in childhood. Suffering from OCD during early stages of a child's development, unique problems can arise for the child. It is important that the child receive evaluation and treatment by a knowledgeable clinician to prevent the child from missing important opportunities because of this disorder

LONG-LASTING SYMPTOMS

OCD tends to last for years, even decades. The symptoms may become less severe from time to time and there may be long intervals when the symptoms are mild, but for most individuals with OCD, the symptoms are chronic. There are various types of treatment that have been effective for some but not all persons with OCD.

WHAT CAUSES OCD?

The old belief that OCD was the result of life experiences has been weakened before the growing evidence that biological factors are a primary contributor to the disorder. The fact that OCD patients respond well to specific medications that affect the neurotransmitter serotonin suggests the disorder has a neuro-biological basis. For that reason, OCD is no longer attributed only to attitudes a patient learned in childhood — for example, an inordinate emphasis on cleanliness, or a belief that certain thoughts are dangerous or unacceptable. Instead, the search for causes now focuses on the interaction of neuro biological factors and environmental influences, as well as cognitive processes.

OCD is sometimes accompanied by depression, eating disorders, substance abuse disorder, a personality disorder, attention deficit disorder, or another of the anxiety disorders. Co-existing disorders can make OCD more difficult both to diagnose and to treat.

In an effort to identify specific biological factors that may be important in the onset or persistence of OCD, NIMH-supported investigators have used a device called the positron emission tomography (PET) scanner to study the brains of patients with OCD.

Several groups of investigators have obtained findings from PET scans suggesting that OCD patient,, 'have patterns of brain activity that differ from those o people without mental illness or with some other mental illness. Brain imaging studies of OCD showing abnormal neuro-chemical activity in regions known to play a role in certain neurological disorders suggest, that these areas may be crucial in the origins of OCD. There is also evidence that treatment with medications or behavior therapy induce changes in the brain coincident with clinical improvement.

Recent preliminary studies of the brain using magnetic resonance imaging showed that the subjects with obsessive-compulsive disorder had significantly less white matter than did normal control subjects, suggesting a widely distributed brain abnormality in OCD. Understanding the significance of this finding will be further explored by functional neuro-imaging and neuro-psychological studies (Jenike et. al, 1996)

Other theories about the causes of OCD focus on the interaction between behavior and the environment and on beliefs and attitudes, as well as how information is processed. These behavioral and cognitive theories are not incompatible with biological explanations.

HOW TO GET HELP FOR OCD

If you think that you have OCD, you should seek the help of a mental health professional. Family physicians, clinics, and health maintenance organizations may be able to provide treatment or make referrals to mental health centers and specialists. Also, the department of psychiatry at a major medical center or department of psychology at a university may have specialists who are knowledgeable about the treatment of OCD and are able to provide therapy or recommend other resources.

WHAT THE FAMILY CAN DO TO HELP

OCD affects not only the sufferer but the whole family. The family often has a difficult time accepting the fact that the person with OCD cannot stop the distressing behavior. Family members may show their anger and resentment, resulting in an increase in the OCD behavior. Or, to keep the peace, they may assist in the rituals or give constant reassurance.

Education about OCD is important for the family. Families can learn specific ways to encourage the person with OC D to adhere fully to behavior therapy and/or pharmaceutical therapy programs. Self-help books are often a good source of information. Some families seek the help of a family therapist who is trained in the field. Also, in the past few years, many families have joined one of the educational support groups that have been organized throughout the country.

CONTINUING RESEARCH

Research into treatment for OCD is ongoing in several areas. Ways of increasing availability of effective behavior therapy; cognitive therapy; relapse prevention; methods of reducing medication in patients who have a history of being unable to tolerate medication, such as small, liquid doses of flouxetine or the use of intravenous clomipramine; and neuro-surgery, a new approach to treatment-refractory OCD. In the very few centers where neuro-surgery has been performed as a clinical procedure, candidates are generally restricted to those who have failed to respond to conventional treatments, including behavior therapy and pharmaceutical therapy.

In addition to research into treatment modalities, NIMH researchers are conducting studies into possible linkage of OCD to some auto immune diseases (diseases in which infection-fighting cells, or antibodies, turn against the body, trying to destroy it). Other NIMH- supported studies compare behavior therapy, pharmaceutical therapy, and a combination of both.

IF YOU HAVE SPECIAL NEEDS

Individuals with OCD are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Among the organizations that offer information related to the ADA are the ADA Information Line at the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Job Network (JAN), part of the President's Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities in the U.S. Department of Labor

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association publishes a directory of indigent programs for those who cannot afford medications.

Information for this article was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health. The National Institute of Mental Health is part of The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Federal Government's primary agency for biomedical and behavioral research. NIH is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.