OCD Facts for the Media

What is OCD?

Often referred to as the secret illness, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a condition where a person will experience repetitive, intrusive and unwelcome thoughts (the obsessions), which will usually cause the person to carry out repetitive behaviours (the compulsions) in a vain attempt to relieve themselves of the obsessions.

Sufferers are plagued by persistent, recurring thoughts about feared situations (obsessions), which they attempt to fight with mental or physical rituals, excessive repetition of actions, washing, checking or counting, or agonised ruminations (compulsions).

Common obsessions include fears around contamination, causing harm to one's self or others, inappropriate sexual thoughts, hypochondria and 'unlucky' numbers.

Most sufferers are actually aware that their fears and behaviour are irrational but feel unable to control them.

 

Who is affected by OCD?

The incidence of OCD can be traced historically, cross-culturally and across a broad social spectrum and does not appear to restrict itself to any specific group of individuals.

According to some studies, OCD is the fourth most common mental disorder after depression, alcohol and substance misuse, and social phobia with a lifetime prevalence in community surveys of about 2–3%.

OCD affects males as frequently as it does females, and on average begins to affect people in late adolescence for men and early twenties for women. However, it may take individuals 10-15 years or even longer to seek professional help.

 

What are the treatments for OCD?

The treatments found to be the most effective in successfully treating OCD are Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), with or without medications from the Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitor Medications (SSRIs) group of medications.

In practice many OCD sufferers find they are only offered medication treatment due to waiting times for CBT anything from 6 months to 2+ years.

In 2007, Health Secretary Alan Johnson announced a £173 million programme to improve access to talking therapies such as CBT for people suffering from anxiety disorders like OCD. The new plan aims to reduce that wait to just a fortnight, in line with improvements in outpatient waiting times in other parts of the NHS.

 

How much does OCD cost?

OCD is ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the top 10 of the most disabling illnesses by lost income and decreased quality of life.

Mental illness accounts for over a third of the burden of illness in Britain. For example, some 40% of all disability (physical and mental) is due to mental illness.

Whilst depression and anxiety illnesses like OCD account for a third of all disability, they attract only about 2% of NHS expenditure.

Most NHS expenditure on mental health goes on people who suffer from schizophrenia or manic depression, which are only 1% of the population and they desperately need better care. But so do the 16% of the population who suffer from depression and chronic anxiety disorders like OCD. Their under-treatment exerts a huge cost in terms of distress - and of economic loss.

By comparing the employment rates of sufferers with those of the rest of the population. If we also allow for increased absenteeism, the total loss of output due to depression and chronic anxiety is some £12 billion a year – 1% of our total national income. Of this the cost to the taxpayer is some £7 billion – including incapacity benefits and lost tax receipts.

A survey of an OCD consumer advocacy group estimated that, on average, a person with OCD loses fully 3 years of wages over their lifetime. If an OCD sufferer incurs losses of £483.04 for every week they are absent (income data services, 2004), this would amount to a total of £75,354 due to unemployment over this 3-year period, not including lost opportunities for career advancement and the cost to families and carers over their respective working lifetimes.

This highlights the importance of delivering psychological interventions at the earliest signs of the onset of symptoms.

 

Where can people go for more support?

Call OCD-UK on 0845 120 3778 or visit the website http://www.ocduk.org

OCD-UK facilitate a safe environment for people affected by OCD to communicate with each other and provide mutual understanding and support.

OCD-UK have also put together an 'ice breaker' for people to pass to their GP if they are not sure what to say to their GP. You can download it free of charge from the OCD-UK website at http://www.ocduk.org

 

About OCD-UK

OCD-UK is the leading national charity, independently working with and for people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Uniquely it was founded by and is still run by trustees, all of whom have direct experience of suffering from the illness.

 

Sources: (OCD-UK, NICE Guidelines for OCD, A New Deal for Depression and Anxiety Disorders Report (June 2006) - London School Economics)

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