Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is defined by the presence of either obsession or compulsion that is severe enough to be time consuming or to cause marked distress or significant impairment. At some point during the course of the disorder, the person recognizes that the obsessions and compulsions are excessive or unreasonable.
Twenty-one patients which all met the inclusion criteria for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV (DSM-IV) for OCD diagnosis were observed in a private polyclinic in Skopje, Macedonia, treated with medications and evaluated on three separate occasions (baseline, after 6 months, and one year after the beginning of therapy). The severity of the obsessive-compulsive symptoms was assessed during each follow-up examination by means of the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (YBOCS), BDI (Beck depression inventory) and BAI (Beck anxiety inventory).
The aim of the present study was to investigate the changes in the psychiatric condition with the help of medications in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) over a one-year period of pharmacological treatment.
There was a statistically significant improvement of the scores of three subscales of Y-BOCS (obsession, compulsion, and global) in OCD patients during the one-year treatment. There was a statistically significant relationship between the time points and the BDI and BAI scores. They improved significantly between the six months and one-year time points.
Patients and their families should be provided with information on support groups and should have opportunities to discuss the impact the illness has had on their self-experience and their relationships.
Treatment with either selective serotonine re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), or both, is successful for OCD, which was confirmed in our study.
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