Lecture 6 Flashcards
OCD
What is OCD?
classified as an anxiety disorder
the occurrence of unwanted and intrusive obsessive thought usually accompanied by compulsive behaviours used to neutralise the obsessive thoughts
prevalence onset
2% lifetime prevalence
1% one year prevalence
98% show obsession and compulsion
equal across gender
equal across culture
socio-economic drift noticeable
age onset
late adolescence, early adulthood
childhood onset more common in males
Features of OCD
obsession
- recurrent intrusive thoughts
- images
- experienced as disturbing or inappropriate
compulsion
- used to get rid of or deal with obsessions, prevent distress
- repetitive behaviours
- covert mental acts
DSM - 5 criteria for obsessions
recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges or images that are experienced at some post during the disturbance as intrusive and unwanted and cause marked anxiety and distress
the person attempts to suppress or ignore such thoughts, impulses or images or neutralise them with some other thoughts or actions
DSM - 5 criteria for compulsions
repetitive behaviours or mental acts in response to an obsession or according to rules that must be applied rigidly
the behaviours or mental acts are aimed at preventing or reducing distress or preventing some dreaded event or situation. these behaviours either are not connected in a way that could neutralise or pre-empt what they are meant to address or are clearly obsessive
co - morbidity
80% experience depressive symptoms
30% experience major depression
co - occurs with other anxiety disorder such as panic, social phobia, PTSD
high co-occurence with body dysmorphic disorder
intrusive thoughts
when the occur regularly and impact our daily life
repetitive behaviour may join intrusive thoughts
types of compulsions
cleaning
checking
repeating
ordering
counting
pathological doubt
linked to a cognitive deficit in memory
failure to do a task, as a result an individual believes something terrible will happen as a result
unrealistic risk assessment
lack of understanding of how unlikely such an event is
behavioural explanation - Mowrer
touching door handle causes contamination which causes anxiety
waking hands reduces anxiety reinforcing behaviour
any thought of door handle leads to anxiety
excessive hand washing if anything causes anxiety
a cycle of OCD
evolutionary explanation
biological preparedness - some obsessions are more common
animals show displacement activities when stressed. rather than focusing on a stressful/threatening situation, they focus on something else
thought suppression increases intrusive thoughts
non-OCD can forget about intrusive thoughts
OCD patients asked to suppress them, report more intrusive thoughts - a rebound effect
cognitive explanation
increased sense of personal responsibility
- appraisal of intrusive thoughts
- negative automatic thoughts
inability to distinguish between thoughts and actions
- thinking about something becomes the same as doing it