The psychiatrist named the features of obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is manifested by obsessive thoughts and actions. One person may have one of the manifestations or all at once, Alexei Kiryukhin, a psychiatrist at the Medical Center of Dr. Alexandrovsky, told Izvestia on August 8.

"For example, obsessive thoughts about something bad happening to loved ones, such as parents, are more common among children and adolescents, while older adolescents and adults have more cases of obsessive thoughts on religious or sexual topics," he noted.

Many character traits can be similar to OCD symptoms, such as the tendency to double-check whether the door is closed before leaving, whether electrical appliances are turned off, or to look for symmetry on tiles on the way to work, or to walk certain routes. In particular, perfectionism, at first glance, may be similar to OCD, the expert added. But, according to him, it is usually not difficult for doctors to separate the norm from the disorder, since there are clear diagnostic criteria for OCD.

"We can only talk about a disorder in cases where obsessions take up a lot of a person's time, more than one hour a day, or cause severe distress, severe disruption in personal, family, social, educational, professional and other important areas of life," said Alexey Kiryukhin.

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Complete disappearance of symptoms, according to the specialist, can be achieved very rarely, this requires effective pharmacotherapy and long-term regular psychotherapeutic work. But the goal of therapy is to achieve a state where obsessions, if they remain, no longer cause severe anxiety, disorders in various spheres of life and take up less than an hour a day from a person. Often, for a comfortable life, it is enough for a patient to reduce the severity of symptoms by at least more than 30-40%. However, everything is individual. At the same time, OCD does not prevent people from living normally and building careers in various fields, the psychiatrist noted.

On February 27, Viktor Nurdaev, a psychiatrist at the Sberbank Health medical company, told Izvestia about the three most common mental disorders. According to him, these are bipolar and obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD), as well as schizophrenia.

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