(and if this theory proves true, it would mean, of course, that those people obsessed with avoiding infection may have been right after all, although sadly for them, they’re really only barring the door after the horse has escaped).
..... Alternatively, some researchers believe the most likely preventable cause is some type of head injury, although it’s also very likely that many of those people who end up with OCD as a result of an infection or brain injury were probably predisposed to this condition genetically (OCD does tend to run in families).
..... The standard treatment for OCD these days is medication, which generally involves the use of some type of anti-depressant drug, usually one of the SSRIs or SSRI variants (such as Prozac, Luvox, or Effexor), although for many OCD patients, psychotherapy and especially cognitive behavioral therapy from an effective and sympathetic therapist is often just as (if not more than) effective as drugs for milder cases.
..... For more severe cases that are refractive to therapy and which severely limit a person’s quality of life, brain surgery involving among other things a gadget that is implanted in the brain to do what the neurosurgeons call “deep brain stimulation” has been tried with some limited success.
..... By the way, out here on the west coast, I’ve noted that a common mild form of obsessive compulsive behaviour overtakes a great number of what are supposedly otherwise mature young men every spring, when they begin to put on the same pair of pants over and over and over again as the Canucks win their first game of their annual short dart into the playoffs.
The trouble is, guys, that not only does this smack of mild obsession and compulsion, it also smacks severely of delusion, perhaps even of psychosis. If the Canucks win any games in the playoffs, it’s never because you wear the same pair of pants. Ha! They win because I wear the same pair of pants.
Dr. Art Hister can be heard on CKNW and other Corus Radio Network stations on House Calls on Saturdays at 10 AM, as well as seen on Global TV news on Saturday mornings at 9:20. |
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