05-18-2009, 08:14 PM
OCD is considered an anxiety disorder. The person performs rituals due in large part to an overwhelming fear that something bad will happen if they don't do them. That's anxiety. Obsessive thoughts are also related to anxiety, like how if you're really worried about something you can't stop thinking about it, only with OCD it happens a lot more than normal to the point where it interfers with daily life. The point is that even though most of the symptoms are not things that people normally associate with being anxious or nervous, the underlying cause of the behaviors is essentially a form of anxiety, so the disorder responds to many of the same medications used to treat other anxiety disorders.The mechanisms by which certain medications relieve symptoms of anxiety are not fully understood, but the basic idea with treating OCD is to treat the anxiety that produces the obsessions and compulsions. With successful treatment, a person with OCD would experience a significant reduction in the feeling that the'need'to do something (which produces the typical compulsive behaviors) and would experience fewer intrusive and repeative thoughts (i.e. obsessions). Ideally these symptoms would be eliminated entirely, but most patients would likely still experience some symptoms, just not as much.In addition to medication, treatment for OCD should include some form of cognitive or behavioral therapy (i.e. talking to a shrink). The goal of that is for the patient to learn ways to better deal with or control obsessions and compulsions, and reduce their impact on daily life. Since it's unlikely that any medical will completely relieve all the symptoms, figuring out how to manage the symptoms through other means is also important for a successful treatment outcome.
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