Obsessive-compulsive disorder, genetic issues and internal health issues

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common, chronic, and long-term psychiatric disorder in which the individual feels uncontrollable, recurring thoughts (impulses) and an urge to repeat behaviors (coercion). It is a disorder with mental actions that cannot be prevented from repeating itself. Millions of people around the world suffer from OCD. According to 2017 data (World Health Organization), roughly 2,3% of any population live with this disorder. In the study, environmental factors including sociodemographic characteristics which are among the factors that cause OCD formation were examined. This study was intended to examine the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and OCD symptoms. Therefore, different types of obsessions and compulsions of the participants have been examined. METHODS:Datawerecollectedfrom62peopleintwomid-Anatoliancities.23(37%)weremale and 39 (63%) were female. Their ages ranged between 17–63 and average age was 32 years. 34 (55%) of them were married, 18 (39%) were single and remaining were separated. Sociodemographic data form, Diagnosis DSM-V, Global Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (OCI-R), and Yale Brown Scale (Y-BOCS) were used for data collection. They received a general psychiatric examination. RESULTS: The results showed that the most common obsessions were transmission and sexual suspicion. In addition, control, washing and questioning were found among the most common compulsions. Regarding the patients, 18 were first time, 29 were repetitive, and 15 were chronic OCD patients. Most common obsession types were found as suspicion, infection, and sexual. Their compulsions were mainly control, washing, avoiding or questioning. 40 of them (64%) indicated not having any internal health problem. Other patients were suffering from various internal health issues such as ophthalmologic problems, migraine, epilepsy, and hernia. The frequency of suffering internal health issues in females (46%) was found to be much higher than males (20%). However, no correlation was found between both genders. Most subjects (58%) reported having a relative person diagnosed with a mental issue especially OCD and depression. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary results revealed that correlation coefficient between OCD symptoms and number of kids (-0.22) showed that the greater number of kids, the less OCD severity. It was found that age and OCD symptoms had negative correlation. On the other hand, similar to previous studies, OCD severity increases as age rises. Having close relatives with OCD symptoms proves that it has a genetic component. Suffering from any internal disease was another factor that increases the risk getting it. Our data comparing male and female subjects diagnosed with it resulted in inconclusive conclusion and supported previous studies. Finally, our findings correlated with the previous research findings and supported the OCD theories about its causes (biology, genetics and environments). However, more detailed and comprehensive studies should be conducted to get more sound proofs about it and related issues such its risk factors, gender and other features.