Psychological disorder of choice - Case Study Example

Case Study. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder by Gloria, a woman of 34, addressed with the symptoms of anxiety, loss of appetite, and insomnia provoked by thoughts about microbes and contamination. The patient cannot use bathroom elsewhere than at her own apartment and is obsessed with washing her hands. She says that unless she has an opportunity to wash her hands at least for a couple of times, she will feel frustration and panic. She confesses that she often thinks of contamination and final death from some deadly virus.

Gloria lives alone and her anxiety makes her clean the apartment for several times a day. She avoids people in her house and at work. At the moment she does not have close friends and stopped communicating with her family. Gloria also acknowledges that she`s been having recurrent sexual fantasies that prevent her from normal work and rest at home.The patient obviously has Obsessive-Compulsive disorder which has all the major symptoms described by Gloria.People with OCD are affected by intrusive and recurrent thoughts, images, feelings which they cannot avoid and get rid of.

A patient aims reducing this anxiety by analyzing the problem; however, due to special OCD thinking patterns he is unable to resolve it himself. Obsessive thoughts become more and more intrusive and the person has to use other mechanisms to cope with them, such as compulsive rituals (Bystritskyi, 2004). Patients often check something permanently or count in any stressful situation. Inability to perform these rituals makes a patient feel uncomfortable and anxious. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder can even feel that some catastrophe can happen if they fail to perform their daily rituals (Jenkie, 2004)Osgod-Hynes distinguishes another serious symptom of OCD that can help to recognize the disorder - sexual thoughts (2006).

The difference between normal people having sexual fantasies and people with obsessive-compulsive disorder is frequency and intensity of these ideas. People with OCD feel stressed and anxious because of repetitive sexual images which are often connected with taboo topics and sometimes involve children, religious images, homosexuality, sadism or masochism.Scientists are unable to distinguish the exact problem causing OCD today and explain it with various theories. According to some research the disorder has genetic nature as the probability of the diseases increases for first-degree patients with OCD.

So cases in family will increase the probability to have the disorder (Jenkie, 2004). There is no gender or age predisposition for having OCD, people may acknowledge symptoms at any stage of their lives.A patient is diagnosed with OCD if he has a combination of quantitative and qualitative symptoms (he has clear obsessions and compulsions which are persistent and recurrent). Since Gloria has well-observed symptoms of OCD, the most effective would be to prescribe her serotonin-reuptake inhibitors in combination with behavioral and cognitive therapy.

Behavioral therapy presupposes exposure to annoying repetitive rituals for their further responses prevention. This type of therapy is proven to be effective in combination with cognitive therapy when patient`s obsessive ideas are challenged (Hupert &Roth, 2003). Gloria has to expose herself to the situations in which she feels anxious, such as when she touches contaminated objects in public places. Soon enough she will habituated to this and the level of anxiety decreases. In the patient`s case the most difficult would be to help Gloria cope with fear of public water closets.

The prognosis for Gloria is rather optimistic since her symptoms are evident and easily diagnosed; moreover the patient herself noticed that something is wrong. Medications will decrease the level of anxiety and stress while exposure to rituals proves to be effective in patients with OCD (Bystritsky, 2004).ReferencesBystritsky, A. (2004). Current pharmacological treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder.Huppert & Roth: (2003) Treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder with Exposure and Response Prevention.

The Behavior Analyst Today, 4 (1), 66 – 70Jenkie, M. (2004). Obsessive-compulsive disorder. The New England Journal of Medicine, 350, 259-265.Osgood-Hynes, D. (2006). Thinking Bad Thoughts .MGH/McLean OCD Institute Journal. Retrieved from: http://www.raminader.com/PDFs%20Uploaded/OCD%20-%20Thinking%20Bad%20Thoughts.pdf