Impact of COVID 19 on patient with obsessive compulsive disorder

Abstract

Since COVID-19 was announced as a pandemic by WHO with strict emphasis on hand washing and disinfection, various media have focused on the suffering of patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). In the eyes of the general population, those with (OCD) are viewed as germophobic patients and extreme cleaners who compulsively wash their hands. The same behaviors are now encouraged to decrease one’s risk of infection and the transmitting of COVID-19. A recent clinical guide on how to manage OCD under COVID-19 echoes similar anxieties, proposing that those with OCD might be more affected than any other group of patients with a psychiatric disorder. Irrational fear of contamination is only one specific manifestation of OCD. Other common forms of OCD have little direct relationship to viruses and germs. In other words, the high level of heterogeneity and selectivity both across and within symptom subtypes is incongruent with the notion that COVID-19 is always directly relevant to OCD.