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Cleanliness is next to godliness

May 29, 2002

THE notion that a strict, possibly even God-fearing, upbringing may contribute to obsessive-compulsive disorder has been boosted by a survey which discovered that devout Catholics were more likely to show symptoms than less religious people.

Patients with OCD get caught in a vicious mental cycle that can take over and cripple their everyday lives. For instance, a sufferer may become convinced that everything around them is dirty, and in extreme cases spend up to 8 hours a day cleaning in a bid to banish the thought. The causes of the disorder, which affects at least 5 million Americans and a million Britons, are still obscure. But genes, upbringing, head injuries and emotional trauma have all been implicated (New Scientist, 2 August 1997, p 26).

Now Claudio Sica at the University of Parma in Italy and his team have found that committed Catholics are more likely to show symptoms of OCD. They compared people, such as nuns and priests who worked in the church, with committed lay Catholics and others with virtually no religious involvement. Each subject was asked to document mild OCD symptoms, such as intrusive mental images or worries. The more devout Catholics reported more severe symptoms.

It`s tricky to tie these findings to clinical OCD, says Lynne Drummond, a psychiatrist at St George`s Hospital in London. She thinks a patient must have a genetic predisposition to develop such symptoms. However, she adds that many OCD patients do say they had a strict upbringing where actions were either right or wrong, black or white.

But the study cannot say for certain that religious devotion early in life causes OCD symptoms. It is equally likely that people with those character traits feel more drawn to a religious lifestyle and devote themselves to God. Author: James Randerson

More at: Behaviour Research and Therapy (vol 40, p 813)

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