Talk:Obsessive–compulsive disorder

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Inaccurate history of OCD is presented

The article neglects to mention that the first clinical description of OCD was by Abu Zayd al-Balkhi in the 9th century work Sustenance of the Body and Soul.

For details, see "Obsessional Disorders in al-Balkhi′s 9th century treatise: Sustenance of the Body and Soul" published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, Volume 180, 15 July 2015, Pages 185-189.

I am including the abstract below:

Morbid fears and phobias have been mentioned in religious, philosophical and medical manuscripts since ancient times. Despite early insights by the Greeks, phobias did not appear as a separate clinical phenomenon in Western medicine until the 17th century and has evolved substantially since. However, robust investigations attempting to decipher the clinical nature of phobias emerged in pre-modern times during the oft-overlooked Islamic Golden Era (9th–12th centuries); which overlapped with Europe’s medieval period. An innovative attempt was made by the 9th century Muslim scholar, Abu Zayd al-Balkhi, in his medical manuscript “Sustenance of the Body and Soul,” to define phobias as a separate diagnostic entity. Al-Balkhi was one of the earliest to cluster psychological and physical symptoms of phobias under one category, “al-Fazaá”, and outline a specific management plan. We analyze al-Balkhi’s description of phobias, according to the modern understanding of psychiatric classifications and symptomatology as described in the DSM-5.

Why is it worded like that?

Why is the first line of the article worded like this?

"a mental and behavioral disorder in which (...)in which an individual has intrusive thoughts (an obsession) and feels the need to perform certain routines (compulsions) repeatedly to relieve the distress caused by the obsession"

OCD behaviours are not necessarily routines or rituals. And to put "compulsions" in parantheses afterwards seems to suggest that a compulsion, in this context, is synonymous with ritualistic behaviours.

I propose that the phrasing "feels the need to perform certain behaviours (compulsions) to relieve the distress caused by the obsession, often repeatedly" would be more accurate. There's nothing in the first section of this article that would tell me that compulsive behaviours can come in any form, and that they aren't always repetitive. Sjokolade1998 (talk) 15:17, 20 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 1 December 2024

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Can I make edits to this page? Alyssaxmay (talk) 09:05, 1 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: this is not the right page to request additional user rights. You may reopen this request with the specific changes to be made and someone may add them for you, or if you have an account, you can wait until you are autoconfirmed and edit the page yourself. Cannolis (talk) 09:34, 1 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hyphen in the title instead of an en dash

The title of this article currently uses an en dash between "Obsessive" and "compulsive". I believe this is incorrect and instead should be a standard hyphen, e.g., "Obsessive-compulsive disorder" rather than "Obsessive–compulsive disorder". I've looked up various sources on this:

1. Health Professions Institute: Compounds consisting of words that are of equal weight are hyphenated: obsessive-compulsive, physician-patient relationship, mother-daughter bond.

2. Merriam-Webster spells the term obsessive-compulsive disorder.

3. Psychiatry.org also uses the term spelled with a hyphen.

Maybe there's a reason it's done with an en dash? Otherwise, this is a suggested change I plan to implement in this article. Qreligious (talk) 21:32, 6 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 19 December 2024

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The photograph that is shown on this page of a man washing his hands is an example of OCD but this may lead to thinking that OCD is more related to actions rather when one visits wikipedia it should be more clear that not only action but repetition in thinking pattern is also OCD. The photograph shows more emphasis.. so it is better to not show this photograph or show multiple photographs Maverick 9828 (talk) 17:19, 19 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, psychological and psychiatric conditions are not easily illustrated with photographs. Martinevans123 (talk) 17:26, 19 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: While I agree that the article could do with a better illustration, I'm not convinced that the removal of what we already have is the way to go, unless Martinevans123 agrees with you (I couldn't tell by their reply). M.Bitton (talk) 11:16, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure this image is better than none. It's a bit misleading. Martinevans123 (talk) 11:55, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done If either of you can think of the most common obsessive and compulsive symptoms, please list them and I will try to create an illustration for the infobox. M.Bitton (talk) 12:21, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think we tend to fall into the trap of thinking "oh, there's an infobox, so it needs to have an image." Martinevans123 (talk) 12:27, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This image, which has just been re-added, shows someone washing their hands. How does this single static image illustrate "Frequent and excessive hand washing "? Everyone washes their hands. Everyone knows what "washing your hands" looks like? What does the reader take away from this lead image... "ah, I see, people with OCD wash their hands"?? Martinevans123 (talk) 23:04, 21 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]