Anxiety Disorders

Question 1

Is OCD an anxiety disorder?

Answer 1

No- Anxiety is not an indicator of OCD severity

Question 2

what are characteristics of OCD?

Answer 2

• Obsessions- (persistent and highly recurrent intrusive thoughts/images that are experienced as disturbing and inappropriate; often about contamination, harming others, need for symmetry)
• Compulsions- repetitive behaviours/ actions that the person feels they have to perform in response to the obsession (goal is to prevent or reduce distress or negative outcomes)
• Overt compulsions- e.g. hand washing
• Covert compulsions- e.g. counting

Question 3

what is needed for a diagnosis of OCD?

Answer 3

obsessions and compulsions have to occur for at least 1 hour per day

Question 4

what is the OCD cycle?

Answer 4

Performing compulsions brings feeling of reduced tension but this is fleeting so needs to be repeated

Question 5

prevelance of OCD

Answer 5

worldwide prevelance of 2% of general population similar in both genders Sasson et al., 1997

Question 6

comorbidity of OCD

Answer 6

mood and anxiety disorders

The most common complication of OCD is depression

Question 7

What is the inflated responsibility model of OCD? and who proposed it

Answer 7

Salkovskis (1985, 1989) proposed that inflated responsibility is central to OCD and an obsessional pattern occurs if intrusive thoughts are interpreted as meaning that the person is responsible for subsequent harm to themselves or others, unless they take action for it to be prevented. This leads to distress and Salkovskis proposed that the individual tries to neutralise their intrusive thoughts by completing compulsive behaviours.

Question 8

support for inflated responsibility model of OCD

Answer 8

• Reeves et al. 2010)
• OCD in children and young people is similar in presentation to OCD in adults
• Induction of responsibility in non-clinical samples leads to OCD-like symptoms
• 81 children aged 9– 12 years were randomly allocated to three conditions: an inflated responsibility group, a moderate responsibility group, and a reduced responsibility group. In all groups children were asked to sort sweets according to whether or not they contained nuts
• The results offer support for the link between inflated responsibility and increased checking behaviours in children
• Wilson et al. 1999 questionnaires studies indicating that OCD symptoms are associated with responsibility beliefs

Question 9

OCD and guilt findings

Answer 9

D’Olimpio et al. 2013
• Guilt= higher in OCD sample- not found in other anxiety disorders
• OCD sample showed increased guilt (state and traits) and stronger subscription to moral standards, compared to anxious and non-clinical samples.
• Guilt trait= positively correlated with symptom severity in OCD sample.

Question 10

treatment of OCD

Answer 10

look into this more if time

• Responsibility= causal role in induction and maintenance of OCD behaviours- Arntz et al., 2007)
• Helping patients decrease inflated responsibility & overestimation of danger (with CT) attenuates symptom severity (Vos et al., 2012)- treatment of patients over a 9 month period.

while both serotonergic and nonserotonergic antidepressants are effective in treating patients with depression, only serotonergic medications are effective in treating OCD patients (Sasson 1997)