Toward a new nosology of obsessive compulsive disorder

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is receiving increasing attention in the clinical research literature. This review briefly summarizes data concerning diagnosis, phenomenology, and epidemiology of OCD and examines other disorders that closely resemble OCD. In addition, the nosological and treatment implications of these data are discussed. We find that OCD is characterized by a focal anxiety point(s) reflected in obsessions and by behavioral or cognitive compulsions. The appearance of these characteristics in other disorders suggests some relation between them and, consequently, the treatment of these disorders may be enhanced by conceptualizing them as OCD “variants”.