Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (O C D)
Assessment data
- Recurrent obsessions or compulsions that are severe enough to be time-consuming or to cause marked distress or significant impairment
Obsessions
- Recurrent thoughts, impulses, or images experienced as intrusive and stressful, and unable to be expunged by logic or reasoning
Compulsions
- Repetitive ritualistic behavior or thoughts, the purpose of which is to prevent or reduce distress or to prevent some dreaded event or situation
Body Dysmorphic Disorder
Assessment
- Characterized by the exaggerated belief that the body is deformed or defective in some specific way
- If true defect is present, the person’s concern is unrealistically exaggerated and grossly excessive.
- Symptoms of depression and obsessive-compulsive personality are common.
Hair-Pulling Disorder (Trichotillomania)
Assessment
- The recurrent pulling out of one’s own hair that results in noticeable hair loss
- Preceded by increasing tension and results in sense of release or gratification
- The disorder is not common, but it occurs more often in women than in men.
Hoarding Disorder
Assessment
- The persistent difficulty discarding possessions regardless of their value.
- Additionally, there can be a need for excessive acquiring of items (by purchasing or other means).
- More men than women are diagnosed with this disorder.
Predisposing factors to O C D and Related disorder
Psychoanalytic theory
- Clients with O C D have weak, underdeveloped egos.
- Aggressive impulses are channeled into thoughts and behaviors that prevent the feelings of aggression from surfacing and producing intense anxiety fraught with guilt.
Learning theory
- Conditioned response to a traumatic event
- Passive avoidance
- Active avoidance
Psychosocial influences related to trichotillomania
- Stressful situations
- Disturbances in mother–child relationship
- Fear of abandonment
- Recent object loss
- Possible childhood abuse or emotional neglect
Biological aspects
- Genetics: Possible with trichotillomania
- Neuroanatomy: Possible abnormalities in basal ganglia and orbitofrontal cortex with O C D
- Physiology: Some individuals with O C D exhibit electroencephalogram changes.
- Biochemical factors: Possible decrease in serotonin with O C D and body dysmorphic disorder
