OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER AND COMORBIDITY

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and its Correlation with Comorbidity

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and its Correlation with Comorbidity

Introduction

Obsessive compulsive disorder is defined in the DSM-IV as the presence of either compulsions or obsessions or both. Obsessions are defined as persistent and recurrent thoughts, images or impulses that are experienced as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress (Gagan, Janet, Carter, Fe, Dayna, Joseph and Daniel, 2010). They are not simply excessive worries about life's problems; the person attempts to ignore, suppress or neutralize them in some way and they recognize that they are a product of their own mind and are excessive or unreasonable. Compulsions are repetitive behaviors (e.g. hand washing, ordering, checking) or mental acts (e.g. praying, counting, repeating words silently) that the person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession, or according to rules that must be applied rigidly (Kiara, Liza and Dennis, 2011). Whereas, comorbidity refers to the phenomenon that individuals often suffer from multiple mental disorders. In this paper, the correlation between comorbidity and obsessive compulsive disorder

Thesis Statement

Obsessive compulsive disorder is correlated to comorbidity.

Discussion and Analysis

In the ECA study, 60% of individuals with at least one lifetime disorder had at least one additional disorder and the NCS yielded a similar statistic (56%). Comorbidity is common in patient with obsessive compulsive disorder. That is, the majority of individuals who meet diagnostic criteria are comorbid for obsessive compulsive disorder (Virginia, Umberto, Filippo and Giuseppe 2010). Both the ECA and NCS employed a restricted subset of DSM diagnoses and, with the exception of antisocial personality, excluded the personality disorders (which tend to be highly comorbid with each other and some Axis I disorders), these comorbidity rates are probably low estimates. Additionally, treatment samples are known to have higher comorbidity than general population samples. Therefore, the typical mental health professional is likely to encounter more comorbid psychopathology than the epidemiologist (Steven, Franco, Kareen and Hagop, n.d.).

Several reasons have been put forth to explain observed comorbidity. First, some degree of comorbidity is expected by chance alone (e.g., the joint probability of having two disorders assuming the two disorders are statistically independent) (Rajnarayan, Janardhan and Bada, 2011). Although this type of comorbidity does not imply any meaningful etiological relation between the two disorders, it can still be important clinically. For example, the presence of one disorder can complicate the treatment of another disorder. Second, two or more disorders can co-exist simply because the diagnostic criteria for each disorder overlap (e.g., obsessive compulsive disorder and social phobia or avoidant personality disorder) (Ahmet, Rasit, Ilker, Handan and Olcay, 2010). Third, two or more disorders can co-exist because they are jointly caused by the same variables. For example, the personality trait of neuroticism appears to predispose individuals to a range of mental disorders like obsessive compulsive disorder. Fourth, the presence of one disorder can lead to the development of another disorder. For example, alcohol dependence appears to increase the likelihood of compulsion or ...