Phenomenology of obsessions in a Turkish series of OCD patients

Forty-five outpatients interviewed by using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R, Outpatient version and diagnosed as obsessive-compulsive disorder were evaluated in terms of form and content of obsessions and compulsions. Obsessive-compulsive phenomena were classified according to a system proposed by Khanna and Channabasavanna. Depressive disorder was the most common comorbid diagnosis found in 73.2% of patients. The most prevalent obsession themes were daily activities and dirt contamination themes (64.4 and 53.3%, respectively). Religious themes were infrequent (11.1%) in the sample and Muslim culture seemed not to have a prominent impact on phenomenology of the disorder.