Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a neurological disorder in which symptoms such as obsessive-compulsive ideas or compulsive behaviors are the main manifestations. Compulsive ideas are thoughts, imaginations, and impulses that appear involuntarily in the patient’s mind; compulsive behaviors are outwardly apparent behaviors or hidden confrontational thoughts, and compulsive behaviors are various activities undertaken to reduce the anxiety caused by compulsive ideas, or to explain compulsive ideas in some way. Patients are aware that these compulsive symptoms are irrational and unnecessary, but they are unable to control or get rid of them, and are therefore anxious and distressed, but after chronic prolongation of the disease, the patient’s anxiety and distress are reduced and replaced by stereotyped behaviors. In addition, OCD that starts in children and adolescents has less pronounced counter-compulsions. 1. Is OCD a rare disease? The prevalence of OCD was previously thought to be low and rare, with a prevalence of only about 0.05% in the general population, but in recent years, large-scale epidemiological surveys in the United States have shown a high prevalence. Recent epidemiological surveys of adolescents and adults have found similar prevalence of OCD in these two groups. Slightly more than half of the adult patients were female, but among pediatric patients, the ratio of males to females was 2:1. The onset of OCD occurs from adolescence to adulthood, with males earlier, around 13-15 years of age, and females at 20-24 years of age. 2. Does OCD need to be treated? Does it affect the patient much? Usually, OCD develops gradually and severely, but there are cases where it is already very severe when the attacks begin. Although most patients’ symptoms subside over time, about 10% of patients experience further deterioration. OCD often leaves the patient with severe disruptions in ordinary functioning, such as affecting the patient’s job and causing deterioration in spousal and other interpersonal relationships. Follow-up surveys of adolescents with OCD have found that they often reduce their social activities in order to conserve energy for obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions. Many people with OCD have had the disorder for several years before seeking treatment. One study found that the average time between the first noticeable symptom and the first time a person with OCD sought treatment was more than seven years. The disorder leaves individuals with severely impaired functioning, which can lead to job loss, spousal divorce, and other interpersonal problems. Fifty percent of married patients with OCD who come to seek treatment have complaints of marital problems. 3. What are the causes of OCD? ①The cause of the disease is still unclear. For example, an individual with certain personality traits (excessive pursuit of perfection, indecisiveness, cautiousness, stubbornness, etc.) is actually formed by genetic factors (parents’ personality traits are passed on to their children through genes) and environmental factors (parents’ personality traits are expressed in their daily lives through their specific behaviors, and children fix them through imitation and learning). and fixed by imitation and learning); at a certain time due to certain life events or stimuli triggered, eventually the OCD appears. (3) Current research: twin studies of psychiatric disorders; functional brain imaging studies of OCD and its siblings. 4. What are the clinical manifestations of OCD? ①Compulsive thinking: Ideas, concepts, thoughts, sounds, images or exhaustive thinking, fear of losing self-control, etc. (2) Compulsive behavior: washing, checking, examining, or questioning, etc.