Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Treatment

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is grouped with a list of emotional conditions called anxiety disorders. Common symptoms of obsessive worry and worry tie anxiety disorders together under one heading.

OCD sufferers develop compulsions, or specific rituals and habits, to deal with their obsessions, or intrusive irrational fears.

Common obsessions for OCD patients include concern of contamination, fear of danger or harm, fear of disorder or chaos, and worry of losing possessions or not having a needed object.

Common compulsions that typically develop out of these obsessive fears include repeated hand washing or cleaning, compulsive checking, compulsive counting or arranging, and compulsive hoarding.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) combined with prescription drug therapy is the most common kind of treatment for OCD. Early diagnosis is crucial to a successful treatment outcome.

Treatment for OCD is most successful when OCD is the only illness diagnosed.

OCD patients can experience a cyclic form of the illness. Periods of relative remission may alternate with periods of very intense symptoms.

Symptoms of OCD come and go throughout the average patient’s entire life. OCD patients experience periods of relative normalcy that are punctuated by periods in which the illness is more active. OCD is a chronic mental condition that never entirely goes away. A cure for OCD has not yet been discovered. OCD cannot be cured however symptoms can be effectively managed.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a process that desensitizes OCD sufferers to the items they fear. CBT can be intense and very specific. Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy (CBGT) also helps OCD patients in many cases.

SSRI medications such as Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, and Celexa are frequently used for OCD. SSRI medications work by lengthening the amount of time that serotonin circulates in the bloodstream. Seraotinin is a natural tranquilizer created by the human body. Anxiety, depression, and OCD disrupt healthy seratonin levels in several people.

Clomipramine is one of the older OCD medications that's no longer used as often as SSRIs. Unpleasant side effects accompany clomipramine use, including a sudden drop in blood pressure upon standing, dry mouth, sleepiness, and difficulty with urination. SSRIs are now more popular because of the older drug’s negative side effects.

Clomipramine is still used in cases where SSRI medications don't bring relief. Medications for ADHD are also sometimes used to treat OCD. OCD and ADHD usually occur along.

OCD is not usually treated with drug therapy alone. Treatments are designed to address each OCD patient’s specific pattern of symptoms.

OCD patients can relieve some of their symptoms with self-help programs. Thought-stopping programs and self-hypnosis are most helpful. OCD symptoms can also be helped in some people with St John’s Wort, an herbal depression supplement.

Insoitol, a treatment that seems to relieve OCD symptoms in some people, is new and promising. Inositol occurs naturally and is a form of glucose related to B vitamins. Inositol works as effectively as SSRI drugs for some OCD patients.

Inositol can't be safely used for OCD in ladies who are pregnant, nursing, or in ladies who might become pregnant.