Question

Watch the clip (click on the link).

1. Which psychological disorder is being depicted in this scene?
2. What are the common findings of this disorder?
3. What is the treatment plan for this disorder? (Name 3)
4. How prevalent is this disorder?

As Good as It Gets (1/8) Movie CLIP - We're All Gonna Die Soon (1997) HD (Links to an external site.)

Answer 1

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental illness that causes repeated unwanted thoughts or sensations (obsessions) or the urge to do something over and over again (compulsions). Some people can have both obsessions and compulsions.

• Common findings: Checking, such as locks, alarm systems, ovens, or light switches, or thinking you have a medical condition.
• Contamination, a fear of things that might be dirty or a compulsion to clean. Mental contamination involves feeling like you’ve been treated like dirt.
• Symmetry and ordering, the need to have things lined up in a certain way
• Ruminations and intrusive thoughts, an obsession with a line of thought. Some of these thoughts might be violent or disturbing.

TREATMENT

There’s no cure for OCD. But you may be able to manage how your symptoms affect your life.

Treatments include:

• Psychotherapy. Cognitive behavioural therapy can help change your thinking patterns. In a form called exposure and response prevention, your doctor will put you in a situation designed to create anxiety or set off compulsions.
• Relaxation. Simple things like meditation, yoga, dance therapy, music therapy and massage can help with stressful OCD symptoms.
• Medication. Psychiatric drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors help many people control obsessions and compulsions. They might take 2 to 4 months to start working.
• Neuromodulation. In rare cases, when therapy and medication aren’t making enough of a difference, your doctor might talk to you about devices that change the electrical activity in a certain area of your brain. One kind, transcranial magnetic stimulation. It uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells. A more complicated procedure, deep brain stimulation, uses electrodes that are implanted in your head.

PREVAlANCE

It’s a bit more common in women than in men. Symptoms often appear in teens or young adults.

Babies ( 0-2 years) : Very rare

Toodlers ( 3-5 years) : rare

Children ( 6-13 years) : Common

Teenagers ( 14- 18 years) : Common

Young Adults ( 19-40 years) : Common

Adults ( 41-60 years) : Common

Seniors ( 60 plus years) : Common