OCD in Bahrain: a phenomenological profile

Fifty patients with a primary diagnosis of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) were studied during the course of the year 1994 from a phenomenological point of view in order to delineate the various forms and contents of obsessions and compulsions. An attempt was made to highlight the frequency with which the different forms and contents occur. Six types of obsessions were identified: doubts, thoughts, fear (phobia), images, impulses and miscellaneous. Compulsive acts were classified into two types: yielding and controlling. The contents of obsessions could be classified into eight broad categories as relating to: dirt and contamination, germs, aggression, sex, religion, blasphemy, illness and indecisiveness. Thirty eight percent of the patients displayed obsessional thoughts related to dirt and contamination, while forty per cent showed religious and blasphemous obsessional thoughts and doubts. Fifty six percent of the patients had compulsions of which 36% were multiple, while 20% displayed only a single compulsion. The paper discusses these findings and emphasizes the role played by sociocultural and religious factors in shaping the character of an obsessional thought content.