Mental Health Mental Health Basics

A Hard Habit to Break: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Another symptom that people don't often recognize as problematic, though their relatives and neighbors do, is hoarding behaviors, which may or may not be a similar syndrome. People can horde immense quantities of useless items, taking up their homes and their garages and even rental spaces.

What causes OCD?
We're not entirely sure. There may be a dysfunction of the brain circuitry between two parts of the brain: the orbital cortex and the basal ganglion. When children have OCD, parents are often concerned that it's their fault—that they raised the child incorrectly or badly and that has resulted in the development of this condition. We have no evidence to that degree at all.

Does OCD run in families?
We've demonstrated that these symptoms and disorders do seem to run in families. There's an eight-fold increased risk in the first-degree relatives of individuals who have the condition.

What are other risk factors?
The other risk factors include a condition called PANDAS (pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcal infections). It usually affects children who contract a streptoccocal infection like a strep throat; they abruptly develop symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder after infection. There are other medical conditions that can bring about obsessive-compulsive disorder, from rare things such as carbon monoxide poisoning to strokes. People with certain neurological conditions such as Tourette's syndrome and Huntington's disease also have an increased risk.

There's no doubt that there are also environmental factors. It's difficult, though, to delineate them with great accuracy. A very important one is pregnancy. A woman can either have the onset or a substantial aggravation of the syndrome during pregnancy or immediately post-partum. There can also be exacerbations during the menstrual period. People can also develop obsessions and compulsions with post-traumatic stress syndrome, which is a condition that develops following a traumatic event.

How is OCD diagnosed?
Unfortunately, the only way to diagnose obsessive-compulsive disorder is by a clinical examination in which the health professional develops a real understanding of the experiences of the individual they are evaluating. The criteria are the presence of obsessions and/or compulsions and impairment of one's life. There are no blood tests as yet or brain imaging tests that are used routinely to diagnose obsessive-compulsive disorder.

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