How Common Is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
For many years, mental health professionals thought of obsessive compulsive disorder as a rare disease because only a small minority of their patients had the condition. The disorder often went unrecognized because many of those afflicted with obsessive compulsive disorder, in efforts to keep their repetitive thoughts and behaviors secret, failed to seek treatment. This led to underestimates of the number of people with the illness. However, a survey conducted in the early 1980s by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)–the Federal agency that supports research nationwide on the brain, mental illnesses, and mental health–provided new knowledge about the prevalence of obsessive compulsive disorder. The NIMH survey showed that obsessive compulsive disorder affects more than 2 percent of the population, meaning that obsessive compulsive disorder is more common than such severe mental illnesses as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or panic disorder. Obsessive compulsive disorder s
