Abstract
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, known as OCD in short, is a relatively recent psychological phenomena that has begun to demand an increasing amount of attention and focus from medical and psychiatric institutions due to higher rates of clinical diagnosis. While estimates of OCD sufferers range from less than 1% to more than 5% of the total population, symptoms of OCD are commonly found within a significant percentage of all individuals at one point or another of their lives. This paper attempts to examine the current research that has been conducted of OCD and to examine released statistical data for any emerging patterns of diagnosis. This paper also attempts to clear up any current myths about OCD as portrayed by either the media or pop culture. The importance of research on OCD to our society is also mentioned within the paper, as well as potential root causes of the disorder. Finally, a prescriptive section dealing with possible effective treatment techniques and methods is detailed at the end of the paper.Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (linked here). By virtue of their appearance in this open access journal, articles are available for wide dissemination at no cost to readers, with proper attribution (acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal), in educational and other non-commercial settings. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository, in a journal or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal. However, for undergraduates authoring a manuscript under the guidance of a faculty member or research mentor, we strongly encourage the student to discuss with the faculty mentor and the Editor if prior publication in the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal will constrain future publication efforts in professional journals. To this end, all authors must submit a signed mentor consent form at the time of submission..