1.What is obsessive-compulsive disorder?
OCD is a type of neurological disorder with obsessive-compulsive symptoms as the main clinical phase. It is characterized by the coexistence of conscious self-compulsion and counter-compulsion, and the strong conflict between them makes the patient feel anxious and painful; the patient experiences that the ideas and impulses originate from the self, but against his will, and needs to resist vigorously, but cannot control them; the patient is also aware of the abnormality of compulsive symptoms, but cannot get rid of them. The patient is also aware of the abnormality of obsessive-compulsive symptoms, but cannot get rid of them.
2.What are the manifestations of OCD?
OCD starts slowly with no obvious cause. The basic symptoms are obsessive-compulsive ideas, obsessive-compulsive intentions, and obsessive-compulsive behavior. It can be mainly one kind of symptoms, but also several kinds of symptoms.
The common manifestations are as follows.
(A) compulsive ideas
1, compulsive thoughts in the mind of patients often repeatedly think of some words or phrases, and these words or phrases are often the patient’s aversion. For example, a person who believes in religion, repeatedly think of some obscene or blasphemous words and phrases in the mind.
2, compulsive exhaustive thinking patients repeatedly think about some common things, concepts or phenomena, to get to the bottom of it, know that there is no real meaning, but can not control themselves. For example, they repeatedly think, “Was there a chicken or an egg first?” “Why do people eat instead of grass?” .
3, compulsive doubt patients doubt the reliability of what they have done, need to repeatedly check and check. For example, whether the doors and windows are closed, whether the money is counted, and so on, while the patient himself can realize that things have been done, but just not assured.
4, compulsive association patients appear in the mind of an idea or see a sentence, then involuntarily associated with another idea or words and phrases, and most of them are opposing nature, then called compulsive opposing thinking. For example, if you think of “peace”, you will immediately associate it with war, etc.
5, compulsive memories of the patient’s consciousness involuntarily repeatedly presented the experience, can not get rid of, feel distressed.
6, compulsive intention patients experience a strong internal urge to do something against their will, but generally will not turn into action, because the patient knows that this impulse is irrational, absurd, so efforts to restrain, but the internal impulse can not get rid of. For example, if you see an electric plug, you want to touch it, if you see the opposite sex, you want to hug it, etc.
(B) Compulsive actions and behaviors
1, obsessive-compulsive examination mostly to reduce the anxiety caused by compulsive suspicion and measures taken. Often manifested as repeatedly check whether the doors, windows, gas, whether the electric plug is unplugged, whether the account is wrong, etc., serious check dozens of times still do not feel at ease.
2, forced washing mostly from the compulsive notion of fear of contamination and repeated hand washing, laundry, disinfection of furniture, etc.. Often spend a lot of energy and time, know that it is not necessary, but can not control.
3, compulsive ritual actions are usually developed gradually to counteract the anxiety caused by certain compulsive ideas. For example, a student began to appear compulsive ideas will shake his head to fight, it is effective, but not for long, shaking his head can not resist the compulsive ideas, so add a hand tapping the action of the table, this method began to be effective, but the effectiveness gradually declined, so the patient added a foot stomping action to strengthen the role of the fight.
Over time, the patient developed a complex ritualistic procedure: first shaking the head a few times, followed by tapping the table a few times, and then stamping the foot …….
4, obsessive-compulsive questioning OCD patients often do not believe in themselves, in order to eliminate doubts or exhaustion to their anxiety, often repeatedly ask others (especially family members) to obtain explanations and reassurance.
5. Obsessive-compulsive slowness is clinically rare. These patients may deny having any compulsive ideas, and the slow motivation is to try to make everything they do perfect. Since the goal is to be perfect, precise, and right, it often fails, thus increasing the time.
3.How is OCD treated?
1, the purpose of psychotherapy is to make patients have a correct and objective understanding of their personality characteristics and the disease they suffer from, have a correct and objective judgment of the reality of the situation, throw away mental baggage to reduce insecurity; learn reasonable stress management methods, enhance self-confidence, to reduce their sense of uncertainty; not overly ambitious, not too much excellence, to reduce their sense of imperfection. At the same time, we should educate their relatives and colleagues, neither condoning nor overdoing the patient, and encourage the patient to actively engage in useful cultural and sports activities, so that they can gradually be freed from the compulsive situation.
Behavioral therapy, cognitive therapy, and psychoanalytic therapy can all be used for OCD. Systematic desensitization therapy can gradually reduce the number and duration of repetitive behaviors. Aversion therapy can also be tried for those who fail to respond to pharmacological treatment. For specific methods of psychotherapy, see the relevant sections.
2, drug treatment clomipramine is most commonly used. Commonly used dose of 150mg-300mg/d, divided into 2 times, generally 2-3 weeks to begin to show results. The SSRIs such as fluoxetine can also be used to treat OCD, with comparable effects to tricyclics and fewer side effects. In addition, for people with severe anxiety, benzodiazepines can be combined; for refractory OCD, mood stabilizers such as carbamazepine or sodium valproate or small doses of antipsychotics can be combined, which may achieve certain results.