Scribd
Upload
26 views5 pages

PSYCHOPATHOLOGY Assignment 3

Uploaded by

suhaniravindrajha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
26 views5 pages

PSYCHOPATHOLOGY Assignment 3

Uploaded by

suhaniravindrajha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

Submitted by: Suhani Jha

3 rd semester

A21006921026

ASSIGNMENT 3

Ques 1: Covid 19 pandemic led to arising cases in OCD. Explain with relevant
researches

Ans 1: The Covid 19 pandemic has made life much worse by introducing OCD
symptoms to people. New research shows that OCD symptoms have gotten more
severe for many people during the pandemic, and new diagnoses have increased. More
and more people are turning up in doctors’ offices with new cases of th e condition.
―Studies have consistently shown that people without OCD have scored higher on our
OCD assessments than they did before the pandemic,‖ says Andrew Guzick, a clinical
psychologist at the Baylor College of Medicine. ―They are exhibiting more OCD -like
behaviors and reporting more intrusive fears characteristic of OCD.‖

A global pandemic is a perfect breeding ground for OCD. OCD is a disorder of


doubt. Was that door knob contaminated? Did I leave the stove on? Did I hear the
doctor correctly when she told me that that freckle on my arm is really just a freckle?
People who are already clinically anxious are going to experience even more anxiety.

―OCD thrives on intolerance of uncertainty and a perceived need to prevent harm,


especially as it relates to contamination, so it is no surprise that it has been a difficult
time for people struggling with the disorder,‖ says Guzick. His meta-
analysis, published in October 2021 in Current Psychology Reports, found that 32% of
people with OCD experienced a worsening of symptoms during the pandemic.
OCD is a contextual condition, growing worse in times of personal or environmental
stress and easing back when circumstances grow calmer. Since COVID-19 first
emerged, a flurry of research in addition to Guzick’s has been conducted looking at
the exacerbation of symptoms in people with the condition, and the findings have been
troubling. A September 2020 study in the International Journal of Environmental
Research and Public Health, for example, surveyed more than 6,000 people with OCD
and found that 60% reported a worsening of existing OCD symptoms or an onset of
new ones from the earliest days of the pandemic in late 2019 through the end of March
2020.

The problem is, people without OCD respond to pandemic-era guidelines very
differently than people with the disorder. Washing your hands once for 20 seconds
after entering the house may have become common practice for most people in the age
of COVID-19; washing your hands multiple times for 20 minutes at a time is too often
the response of people with OCD. It’s that kind of overreaction that clinicians are
worried is becoming too prevalent.

―For somebody with contamination issues, we would talk to them about hand washing
upon entry of the home, but no other hand washing once you’re in the confines of your
home. We tell them we’re going to operate by CDC [the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention], not OCD,‖ says clinical psychologist Anthony Pinto,
program director of the Northwell Health OCD Center on the campus of Long Island
Jewish Medical Center. Pinto also suggests that those with OCD ―practice touching
[potentially contaminated] objects in the home after washing.‖ Re-exposing patients to
perceived dangers like picking up mail or unwashed groceries and then resisting the
urge to decontaminate—a treatment approach known as exposure and response
prevention (ERP)—was a pillar of all OCD treatment long before the pandemic.

It would be better understood thourgh longitudinal and short term researches.


Grant. J.E., et al. (2022) conducted a study to distil the current evidence base on
relationships between the pandemic and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, in patients, and
general population samples.

A rapid scoping review was conducted, in the form of a systematic literature search, coupled
with narrative review. 32 relevant papers were identified.

RESULTS:

(1) A sizable proportion of people with OCD (but not all) experienced/reported symptom
worsening during the pandemic, especially during initial restrictions (approximately 20–65 %
of cases in longitudinal studies)

(2) contamination/washing symptoms appeared particularly susceptible

(3) OCD symptoms in general population samples were associated with trait compulsivity
and pandemic-related-stress. The literature was heterogeneous with various methodological
issues being commonplace.

Tandt, H.L. et al.,(2021)conducted a twofold study. First, given that previous studies, which
have mainly focused on certain symptom dimensions or direct comparison between
symptoms before and during the pandemic, we aimed to determine the effect of the waxing
and waning pattern of the COVID-19 pandemic as represented by the total number of daily
COVID-19 hospitalizations on OCD symptom severity of the patients. Second, we aimed to
examine the effects of the patient’s own depression, anxiety and stress levels and COVID-19
related distress and the family accommodation of the lived-in family members on the
patient’s OCD symptoms.
It was hypothesized that:
1) patients would experience an increase in symptoms of OCD, depression, anxiety, stress,
COVID-19 distress and FA as the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations increased
2) OCD symptoms at each timepoint would be associated with participants’ own levels of
depression, anxiety, general and COVID-19 related stress and the level of family
accommodation of live-in family members.
Participants were recruited at the Centre for OCD of the Ghent University Hospital (UZ
Gent) located in Belgium. All patients had previously been diagnosed with OCD by expert
psychiatrists and clinical psychologists using the Structured Clinical Interview for the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth or Fifth Edition (DSM-IV or
DSM-5), as reported in their electronic medical records.

Inclusion criteria were:


(a) diagnosis of OCD
(b) age of patients between 18 and 65 years old
(c) speaking Dutch fluently.

Exclusion criteria were:


(a) current substance abuse
(b) psychotic symptoms. In addition, Dutch speaking family members, aged 18-65 years old,
who were living in the same household as the patients with OCD were asked to participate in
the study.

In conclusion, the results of the present study indicate that OCD symptoms may actually
improve during a pandemic, contrary to what might be expected. However, symptoms remain
strongly associated with family accommodation. Therefore, it is important to involve family
members in the treatment of OCD even during a pandemic. Clinicians should also pay
attention to symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress during OCD treatment. Further
research is necessary to entangle the causal relationship between OCD symptoms, FA and
symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress.

REFERENCES

Tandt, H.L., Debruyckere, I., Leyman, L. et al.(2021).How are OCD Patients and Family
Members Dealing with the Waxing and Waning Pattern of the COVID-19 Pandemic? Results
of a longitudinal study . Psychiatry Q 92, 1549–1563. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-021-
09932-9

Grant,J.E., Drummond, L.,(2022). Obsessive-compulsive symptoms and the Covid-19


pandemic: A rapid scoping review. Neuroscience & Bio behavioral Reviews 132, 1086-1098.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.10.039

You might also like