Test for compulsive disorder. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (compulsive disorder). How to know if I have obsessive-compulsive disorder

It is a disorder characterized by ambivalence, regression and fixation. initial stages development, a shift in attachment to distant ideas about the initial conflict, a lack of understanding, the presence of anxiety, restlessness, internal tension, often accompanied by depressive episodes.

Although it usually starts at adolescence and in early adulthood, it can appear even in childhood. It affects 2.5% of the population and prevails throughout a person's life. Barlow, in discussing the nature of anxiety, emphasizes that the basis of this emotion is a "feeling of being out of control", mainly focused on possible future threats, dangers or other negative events in the future, in contrast to fear, in which danger is present and imminent. "Anxious fear" is accompanied by a state of hypersensitivity, the function of which is to prepare for negative events.

This state of vigilance affects the cognitive processes of attention and retrieval of information from memory-forming ideas with the same emotional tone that are most likely to be received. For a definitive diagnosis, according to the International Classification of Diseases, obsessional symptoms, compulsions, or both must be present on most days for at least two consecutive weeks and be a source of distress or activity interference. It must also have the following characteristics: be recognized by the person's own thoughts or impulses; there is at least one thought or deed that still resists, without success; the thought of performing an act should not in itself be pleasant; thoughts, images or impulses must be unpleasantly repetitive.

Cordioli and Heldt state that the most common compulsions are hand washing or checking, control, repetition, ordering, arrangement, symmetry, consistency, or alignment. Throughout his work, Freud sought to find psychic causes for the development of such an illness, trying to test how bodily manifestations were related to mental life and to the emotional experience experienced by the individual. In "Obsessive Acts and Religious Practices" he says that "what is presented in obsessive-ceremonial acts comes from the patient's most intimate experiences, especially sexual ones."

In his work, The Rat Man stated that "love-hate relationships are among the most frequent, most striking, and probably most important features of obsessional neurosis." For psychoanalysis, the unconscious content that dominates obsessions and compulsions is associated with sexual characteristics, predominantly of the anal order, where the essence of this disorder is that something, when repressed by consciousness, manifests itself through other thoughts and behavior. This is a disorder that needs further study and research, as the development of this psychopathological basis is still associated with issues that challenge patients and professionals in this field, and it is believed that only with new research and the integration of knowledge from different fields of knowledge better forecast And best quality life for these people can be achieved.

The subjects of this study were thirty people over the age of 18. Control group: It is compiled according to data related to age and school education, aiming to match the maximum of the experimental group. It was attended by 18 people from the community, employees of the city transport company, university staff and students.

The Pfister test, consisting of a set of three cards containing a pyramid design, is subdivided into 15 squares and a set of colored squares, consisting of ten divided colors in twenty-four shades. After contacting partner institutions - a private mental health clinic, a day hospital, and the university's own mental health clinic - the project was reviewed by the relevant ethics committees. Once the study had been agreed upon, the interview was scheduled in advance by a specialist from the institution responsible for selecting the participants.

The only requirement was that the institution had a place where the interview could be conducted without disruption. Required materials there was a table and chairs. The participant was also asked to be over 18 years of age and be able to answer a series of questions and follow instructions to administer the test.

The applicators were students of scientific initiation, carefully trained in the application of the instruments. In order to train the procedure used and confirm that they were able to perform the test correctly, initial tests were conducted on volunteers. The presence or absence of episodes of humor, psychotic symptoms, alcohol and other substance use, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, panic disorders, and other episodes were checked. anxiety disorders in order to make a psychopathological diagnosis.

Later, the Pfister test was applied. The application of this test is to ask the participant to complete the pyramid using the colors they want to look beautiful. Then one card is presented at a time, and after all three are asked to tell the person which pyramid they liked and least liked. He also wonders about what color he liked most and least in this test, and what color he likes and loves in his life.

The calls were made in pairs and the doubts raised were noted and then taken up for discussion in supervision. Each interview lasted from one to three hours, varying depending on the clinical condition of each patient as well as their individual characteristics, while no more than two applications were executed within one day.

As for the control group, this was formed according to the data provided by the experimental group, taking into account mainly the age and training of the participants. The subjects that made up this group were university students and employees, employees of the city's transportation company, and people from the community itself. The only requirement was that they never sought psychiatric or psychological help.

In the interview, the study was clarified about the study and it was suggested that they sign a consent agreement. Later, some questions were asked about identification data - name, age, education, profession, Family status, number of children, race, religion, medication use, psychiatric or psychological treatment, alcohol or drug treatment - to exclude individuals with a history of psychological or psychiatric treatment.

A variable was also calculated indicating the number of colors used in the pyramids, varying from one to the other. For each color, a variable was calculated indicating whether it appeared in three pyramids or at least two pyramids. The second set was composed of scores from nine formal configurations.

These variables can take two values, indicating the presence or absence of a particular formal configuration in at least one of the three pyramids built, or the presence or absence of absolute or relative permanence. For this, logistic regression was used. Logistic regression aims to estimate the probability of a subject belonging to an experimental group from a model containing independent variables using the following formula.

As with multiple linear regression, the first coefficient is a constant term and other regression coefficients of the independent variables indicating the amount of change in the probability of belonging to the experimental group due to a change in one unit in the independent variable. We have adopted a statistical procedure for choosing the variables to enter the equation. This procedure selects variables step by step because of their contribution to the prediction of membership in the experimental group.

At each step, a variable is selected if it can improve the prediction beyond what has already been achieved by the variables that were introduced before it. A sensitivity of 58.3% and a specificity of 88.9% were observed. Therefore, there is a greater likelihood of false negative rather than false positive errors.

When evaluating the results obtained with regard to the use of colors, we noticed that the group consisting of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder significantly increased the use of Brown. Considering that this disorder is associated with conflicts arising from love and hate experienced during the anal phase of development, the increase in brown is an important indicator for our research, since, according to previous studies and even in Max Pfister's original coincidences, an increase in this color will indicate the presence of compulsions and obsessions.

At another point, he states that "obsessive-compulsive thinking is one whose function is to represent regression." With regard to the formal aspect, we also found in this group a significant increase in formations and a decrease in symmetrical structures.

The symmetrical formation characterizes the formal aspect in which the colors are arranged on the pyramid scheme, two by two, symmetrically, that is, distributed on one side and the other of the pyramid alternately. Its difference for symmetrical structures is that in structures we can observe symmetries in the vertical and horizontal planes of the pyramid, while in formations we find only symmetries in the horizontal sense. However, official organizations that take into account the vertical plane of the pyramid are among people with more high level emotional structuring and emotional maturity.