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Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a chronic, long-lasting disorder where a person often has uncontrollable thoughts or obsessions that normally occur often. These thoughts and behaviors usually cause the urge to do them repeatedly. These thoughts and actions normally interfere with the normal functioning of the body and one experiences mental images that cause anxiety. Some of the symptoms include fear of contamination, aggressive thoughts towards others, and also inappropriate thoughts about taboo. The compulsions caused by the disorder involve excessive cleaning, rearrangement of things, checking on things repeatedly and also compulsive counting. The obsessive-compulsive disorder may also cause a tic disorder which causes a sudden movement on a body part, for example, continuous blinking of the eyes. (Gorrindo & Parekh).

The etiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder include the behavioral theory that points out that individuals normally learn anxiety or discomfort from associations of feelings and neutral stimuli. The reaction of the person to the stimuli is usually a result of reducing fear and original anxiety. Biological theories show that the brain causes primitive aspects of the behavior such as aggression hence when the brain is stimulated, the impulses are brought to the person’s attention which causes them to perform a particular action. The psychodynamic theories show that the disorder is a result of unconscious conflicts that one may be trying to eliminate or transfer them and the reaction is usually an unacceptable behavior.

The factors that cause the development of the disorder may include genetic factors and family history. Studies show that families and twins show a great genetic association hence the risk of having the disorder is great. The family history connection also shows that there is a group of genes that are associated with the disorder and hence a high probability of the risks. There are also environmental factors that may trigger the disorder. Other factors include behavioral and cognitive factors. (Krebs et al…, 2014).

The disorder causes abnormalities in the brain where the transmission of information between regions of the brain involved in learning and cognition is impaired. These may affect the other functioning of the body where there is an abnormal functioning of the body especially when the stimuli is triggered and the person is unable to do anything else apart from the repulsive behavior.

Pharmacological treatment of OCD includes clomipramine, SSRIs including Fluoxetine, Fluvoxamine, Sertraline, Paroxetine, Citalopram, and Escitalopram. Some of the disorders are usually treatment resistive, hence there are therapeutic strategies that can be put in place to achieve the same result. They may include reducing the response time by still using the drugs. Non-pharmacological treatments include psychotherapy, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, neurosurgery and electroconvulsive therapy. (Marazziti et al…, 2012).

There are different ways in which technology has enhanced diagnosis and treatment of OCD. Researchers have created computer-based aids to treat and adapt the basic care of OCD. There are also assessment systems that are applied in the clinical diagnosis of OCD where the Y-BOCS have been integrated with the computer system and accessible via the telephone. The interactive voice response technique uses digitized human speech to guide telephone callers through the Y-BOCS. The BT-STEPS program is another program that is used in the rating of the severity of the OCD symptoms. The technology also enhances self-administration of the drugs, adjunctive treatments and also therapy through telehealth which has been enhanced by the use of telephones that are connected to the programs and the clinician can easily monitor the patient.

References

Gorrindo, T., & Parekh, R. (2017, July). What Is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? Retrieved