The information and perceptions about the diagnosis and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a severe anxiety disease that manifests itself
as a persistent and burdensome condition with a variable course. Although OCD was
originally considered a relatively uncommon disorder, the lifetime prevalence is now
estimated to be between 2 and 3 percent in the general population. OCD is characterized by
recurring, intrusive thoughts that cause discomfort or worry, referred to as obsessions in the
medical community. Obsessions with connotations of violence, sexuality, or religion are
common (Hirschtritt, Bloch & Mathews, 2017). Fear of contamination, doubt, and repeating
ideas with connotations of violence, sexuality, or religion are also common. Habitual,
apparently illogical behaviors often accompany these obsessions to alleviate the associated
discomfort and anxiety, referred to as compulsions. Washing, checking, hoarding, sorting,
and counting are just a few examples of compulsions. The patient recognizes symptoms as
illogical and ego-dystonic, and they create significant impairment in the patient's
psychological and social functioning.

The condition has a male preponderance in childhood, although the sex ratio
normalizes as the kid grows older (Westwell-Roper & Stewart, 2019). The disease manifests
itself in 50–65 percent of individuals before 25, with a peak incidence around 20 years.
According to the American Cancer Society, more than 85 percent of individuals will have
had the condition before 35. According to studies, there is a significant degree of comorbidity
(50–77 percent) with other axes I illnesses (Van Ameringen et al., 2014). The most frequent
is severe depression and other anxiety disorders being the most prevalent. Other illnesses
such as substance misuse, eating disorders, trichotillomania, and Tourette's syndrome are
comorbid with OCD. Previously, it was believed that OCD was a disease that was difficult to
cure. A patient's prognosis for this severely debilitating condition has improved dramatically

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in recent years, thanks to advancements in pharmacological and behavioral therapeutic
techniques. But despite these significant therapeutic improvements, over 30% of OCD
patients continue to struggle despite therapy with traditional treatment methods.

The objective of the study

The main aim of this study is to investigate metacognitive predictors of pathological
worry and obsessive-compulsive (o–c) symptoms in the group of Thai undergraduate students
via a google form. Early detection of OCDs may improve the prognosis for adults with OCD.

Literature Review

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by (a) intrusive and
unwelcome thoughts, ideas, or pictures (obsessions) that cause heightened anxiety, and (b)
repetitive, deliberate rituals (compulsions) that are done in an attempt to neutralize the
increased anxiety. As a result of spending an excessive amount of time worrying and
ritualizing, persons who exhibit this pattern of behavior generally have severe impairment in
their vocational and social functioning (Westwell-Roper & Stewart, 2019). Ritualizing often
includes friends or family members who may be devoting a significant amount of time to the
person's care. In extreme situations, ritualizing may take over the whole day and may even
result in self-injury, such as skin damage from excessive hand washing, among other things.
Typically, symptoms of OCD fluctuate in intensity and frequency during the condition.

Psychological and pharmacological treatments for OCD

Current therapies for OCD may be split into two categories: psychosocial treatments
and pharmacological treatments. Cognitively focused treatments such as Ellis's rational
emotive behavior therapy (REBT),' which is based on Beck's cognitive therapy for depression
(1976),' and thought-stopping are examples of psychological therapies that have been used in

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the field. Antidepressants, especially serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs), have dominated
the field of pharmacotherapy for the last few decades. Even though clomipramine, an SRI,
has gotten more study attention than any other single medicine to date, recent controlled
clinical studies have focused on other SSRIs such as fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, and sertraline.
It has also been reported that behavior therapy and medicine are used in conjunction, most
often in situations of severe OCD or when patients do not respond to behavior treatment
alone (Westwell-Roper & Stewart, 2019). The behavioral, cognitive, and p