Obsessive Thinking

Abstract: Although obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is among the most common of all psychiatric disorders, the diagnosis is frequently overlooked unless specific screening questions are asked by the treating physician. The obsessive thinking and compulsive behaviours that primarily characterize OCD can be found in other obsessive-compulsive "spectrum" disorders as well. These disorders affect a sizable percentage of the U.S. population and have thus become an increasing public health problem. Preliminary results from our comprehensive survey of OCD sufferers found significant impairments in quality of life and substantial costs associated with the morbidity and treatment of OCD. This is of particular interest to the primary care practitioner since these patients often present initially to primary care physicians, and early diagnosis and appropriate treatment can substantially improve outcome.

Abstract: Eighty-two obsessional neurotics were studied from a phenomenological point of view in order to delineate the various forms and contents of obsessions and compulsions. An attempt was made to ascertain the frequency with which the different forms and content occur and their effect on the final outcome of the disorder. Five types of obsessions were identified: doubts, obsessive thinking, fears, impulses, and images, in order of frequency of their occurrence. Compulsive acts could be classified in two types, depending on whether they yielded to or diverted the underlying obsession. One-fourth of the patients displayed no compulsions. The content of obsession could be classified in five broad categories as relating to: dirt and contamination, aggression, inanimate-impersonal themes, religion, and sexual matters, in order of the frequency of their occurrence. The paper, while offering an interpretation of these findings, emphasizes the part played by socio-cultural factors in the character of an obsession's thought content. The absence of compulsions was found to be associated with good prognosis. A downward gradient was noted in the final outcome of patients without compulsions, those with controlling compulsions alone, those with both varieties of compulsions, and those displaying yielding compulsions alone, in that order. Based on this observation the paper suggests a prognosis-related hierarchical continuum of the severity of obsessional disorder.

Abstract: People who are in love think about their beloved the whole day, which is supposed to be associated with serotonin. The research questions were how peripheral serotonin levels differ between individuals that are in love compared to individuals that are not in love, and how these levels are associated with obsessive thinking about the beloved. Because gender differences exist in romantic love and in the serotonergic system, gender differences were tested. Twenty participants who were in love (10 men) and 20 who were not in love (10 men) completed several questionnaires, and plasma and serum serotonin levels were assessed. The men who were in love had lower serotonin levels than the men who were not in love, while women showed the opposite pattern. The participants that were in love reported obsessive thinking about their beloved for 65% of their waking hours. In women, obsessive thinking about the beloved was associated with an increased serotonin level in serum. The serotonergic system seems to play a role in romantic love, but the effects appear opposite for men and women.

Abstract: The authors measured Internal State Awareness (ISA) and Self-Reflectiveness (SR) factors from the Private Self-Consciousness Scale in Iranian (N = 325) and U.S. (N = 401) university students. In both societies, positive correlations with Need for Cognition and Internal Control and negative correlations with external control and obsessive thinking confirmed ISA as an adaptive form of self-consciousness. In partial correlations in which the authors controlled for ISA, SR was associated cross-culturally with greater Obsessive Thinking. This outcome conformed with the authors' expectations that SR would have negative mental health implications, but other data revealed complexities in the SR association with adjustment. Differences between samples failed to yield any simple support for F. Fukuyama's (1992) suggestion that Iranians might be more "alienated" (pp. 236-237) in their psychological functioning. The present study most importantly offered cross-cultural evidence in favor of the claim that better measures of an introspective self-awareness need to be developed.