[Employment of professional help by patients with obsessive-compulsive disorders]

Several studies have investigated the pathway to psychiatric care. There are no results available for OCD.

Therefore, 23 patients with OCD were recruited among individuals seeking treatment at our university hospital outpatient clinic for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders. All patients underwent a semistructured interview aimed at investigating their individual pathways to psychiatric care, to their experiences in the health system and to the first appearances of the psychiatric disorder.

Those affected often trivialize and normalize the first symptoms of OCD. Also, in many cases, family members of OCD-patients do not understand the first symptoms of OCD. Contrary to patients with depression and anxiety disorder, OCD-patients often choose psychiatrists as their first professional contact.

The first symptoms of the disorder must be diagnosed at an early stage in order to provide the patients with the acknowledged therapy for OCD.