Obsessive-compulsive disorder: a study of gender difference in phenomenology

Background: ‘Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder,’ a type of anxiety disorder is a potentially disabling condition that can persist through out a person’s life and causes variable degree of distress to patients. Objective: To assess gender difference in symptomatology of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Setting and Design: Cross-sectional at department of psychiatry in tertiary heath care center. Methods and Material: The study included 100 patients attending psychiatric OPD and admitted patients in psychiatric ward, at tertiary care center of Rajasthan, India who were clinically screened for obsessive compulsive symptoms. The patients, suggestive of suffering from OCD, were thoroughly evaluated for the diagnosis by using ICD-10 criteria for the OCD. All the participants were subjected to Yale-Brown obsessive compulsive scale (Y-BOCS) for assessing the phenomenology and severity of OCD. Statistical analysis used: Commercially available software SPSS version 17. Results: The present study clearly revealed that 58% patients were males who had significantly earlier age at onset of OCD and were less likely to be married. They presented with significantly more aggression obsessions and checking compulsion, where as 42% patients were female and presented with significantly more contamination obsessions and cleaning compulsions. Conclusion: This study reveals that patients with OCD suffer over a long period of time, spend a lot of time on their obsessions and compulsions impairing their social and occupational functioning.