Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Flashcards
(10 cards)
What are the four main themes of obsession and their linked compulsions?
- Contamination- washing hands, avoiding surfaces
- Symmetry- ordering, arranging, counting
- Forbidden thoughts- praying, holding body in certain positions
- Harm- checking
What are obsessions?
Recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, or images that are experienced at some time during the disturbance as intrusive or unwanted, marked by anxiety or distress
What are compulsions?
The attempted thought or action an individual makes to ignore or suppress such thoughts
What is the Not Just Right Experience?
Sometimes obsessions are not experienced as distressing but instead are unsettling. Perception that something is not the way it should be.
What is obsessive compulsive disorder?
Obsessions or compulsions are time consuming or cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning
Not attributable to to physiological effects of a substance or another condition
Not better explained by another disorder
How does gender impact OCD?
Comparable across boys and girls but boys tend to have earlier onset before puberty and girls onset after.
What are the biological mechanisms of OCD?
It is the job of the CSTC to regulate how intense a reaction will be to threatening or frustrating stimuli. Inhibiting and controlling responses are related to the basal ganglia. Parts of this circuit are hyperactive in people with OCD.
How can we treat OCD with SSRIs?
Effective treatment for OCD, usually at high doses= declines the hyperactivity in the CSTC circuits.
What is Exposure and Response prevention?
Have people tolerate and accept the discomfort of an obsession. Provoke obsession via exposure but do not perform compulsion.
Which treatment is best?
Studies show therapy for OCD better than medication.
Combination therapy tends to work better than medication alone but not better than EX/RP.
EX/RP shows significant declines in CSTC hyperactivity.
