As a healthcare professional, you play a fundamental role in diagnosis and treatment of OCD and related disorders.

It is believed that around 1-2% of the UK population has OCD. Yet it is still a relatively unknown and misunderstood disorder. It is partly because of this that it currently takes 12 years – on average, from the first onset of symptoms – before someone with OCD gets effective treatment.

That’s 12 years of living with a debilitating disorder. Not only because they  feel unable to seek help but also, once help is sought, they face delays and obstacles on the road to recovery.

At OCD Action, we aim to tackle this by increasing awareness/understanding of the disorder amongst healthcare professionals (as well as the general population).

In this section of our website you will find resources to help you support a person affected by OCD.

Latest News

The National Commissioning Group of the Department of Health have established a national treatment service for people with OCD.

To be eligible for treatment under this service, the OCD must be severe, the person with OCD must have completed two or more sets of CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and had adequate trials of appropriate medication. The advantages of this service include a minimal waiting list for treatment and the fact that local services have to make a referral but do not have to fund the treatment.

The treatment centres involved in this service include:

• Centre of Anxiety Disorders and Trauma (Maudsley)
• Anxiety Disorders residential Unit (Bethlem Hospital)
• The Child and Adolescent OCD Service (Maudsley)
• St Georges Hospital
• The Queen Elizabeth II Hospital

Further details can be found at www.psychology.iop.kcl.ac.uk

In 2006, NICE published guidance on OCD and related disorders, these can be downloaded below.

• Full Guideline
• NICE Guidance
• Quick Reference
• For the public

OCD Action trustees Naomi Fineberg, Isobel Heyman, David Veale and Cliff Snelling were all members of the Guideline Development Group.

Click on the links below to access papers regarding OCD and related disorders.

• Memantine as an Augmenting Agent for Severe Pediatric OCD
  ajp.psychiatryonline.org

• Grey matter abnormalities in trichotillomania: morphometric magnetic resonance imaging study
  bjp.rcpsych.org

• Prevalence of obsessive-compulsive disorder in the British nationwide survey of child mental health
  bjp.rcpsych.org

• Children with obsessive compulsive disorder should have access to specific psychopharmacological and behavioural treatments
  bmj.bmjjournals.com

• The preliminary development of a new self-report measure for OCD in young people
  www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

• Service innovations – a group for children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder
  pb.rcpsych.org

• Evidence-based pharmacology of obsessive-compulsive disorder
  journals.cambridge.org

• Incidence of anti-brain antibodies in children with obsessive-compulsive disorder
  bjp.rcpsych.org

• Brain 5-HT function in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Prolactin responses to d-fenfluramine
  bjp.rcpsych.org

• Neuroendocrine responses to intravenous L-tryptophan in obsessive compulsive disorder
  www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

• Motor Inhibition and Cognitive Flexibility in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Trichotillomania
  ajp.psychiatryonline.org