Compulsion turned 'on'

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

Imagine hoarding so many newspapers and magazines that an extra shed would be needed to store them. Or washing the hands so many times that the skin cracks and bleeds. Or taking a two-hour shower to be clean enough. Or hitting a bump in the road while driving and stopping to check if the car hit a person.

These are not unrealistic scenarios for people suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, says Jerilyn Ross, president and chief executive officer of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America in Silver Spring. She is director of the Ross Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders in Northwest.

"Someone with OCD thinks, 'If I wash my hands one more time, they will be clean,' " Ms. Ross says. "They walk away and think, 'Did I get it clean enough?' They say, 'How do I know I got it clean enough?' There is an urge or itch to do it again and again."

Obsessive-compulsive disorder includes recurrent unwanted thoughts and repetitive ritualistic behaviors. One in 50 adults have obsessive-compulsive disorder, and twice that many have had it at some point in their lives, according to the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation in New Haven, Conn.

"For some people, it's a nuisance, and it's annoying to them and people around them, but they are still able to function, but they do so with a lot of anxiety, embarrassment and frustration," says Ms. Ross, a licensed independent clinical social worker. "Other people might spend the entire day cutting things out and saving things."

Symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder include continual washing and cleaning, checking of themselves or others to avoid harm, repeating a sequence or phrase and hoarding useless items, Ms. Ross says. One of her patients moved into a house and couldn't unpack any of the boxes.

People who think they may have the disorder can take a test at the Web site (www.rosscenter.com/anxiety_disorders/obsessive_compulsive_disorder/quiz).

Recent research shows that the disorder may be genetic, says Dr. Joseph Bienvenu, assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

If a person comes from a family with obsessive-compulsive disorder, the person is more likely to have the disease, he says. Further, studies of twins suggest that the disorder runs in families because of genes, not environment. If one identical twin has the condition, the other twin often does as well. Identical twins match more than fraternal twins in having obsessive-compulsive disorder.

"We are trying to find the genes for obsessive compulsive disorder," Dr. Bienvenu says. "Since there is evidence that genes are important, we are doing studies in regions of the human genome to find the genes."