Pathway to Service in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Patients in Egypt

Abstract

bsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common and debilitating mental illness with 12-month Oprevalence rates ranging from 1.2% to 1.9%, the existence of evidence-based treatments for OCD is crucial, given that OCD has a significant negative impact on the individual in areas including quality of life, functional impairment, and independent living if the condition is untreated and despite this, there is evidence that as few as 35% to 40% of individuals living with OCD seek any type of treatment, with paucity of literature examining the reasons underlying the low rates of treatment for OCD. Based on that, this study was conducted at Institute of psychiatry, Ain shams university hospital, Cairo, Egypt, aiming to study barriers to access effective treatment for OCD, duration of untreated illness, and role of traditional healers so as to inform strategies for improving service access for those with OCD. 93 (ninety-three) patients were included in this study Their age ranges between 18-64 years. The study took place from September 2019 till collecting whole study sample. All subjects of the study were assessed by using: Mini international neuropsychiatric interview: to diagnose OCD and exclude any other comorbid psychiatric illness; Yale brown obsessive-compulsive scale to assess symptoms and severity of OCD, semi-structured designed questionnaire to assess service seeking behavior and traditional healers’ role in OCD patients and either causes of delayed seeking of psychiatric advice and preference of traditional healers’ advice.