It blows my mind that OCD was so uncommon about 30 years ago and that you could have been diagnosed as someone with neurosis or psychosis. The authors story about his mother-in-law is so sad, not only for his mother-in-law, but for the many people who suffered from this mental disease and felt they were alone. For something that was so uncommon in the 70's to now be included in the top ten causes of disabilities in the world is proof of how far the psycological world has come. I hadn't thought about how many people would seek treatment bacause of media exposure, even taking those people out of the equation, there are still many more documented cases of OCD than thirty years ago and treatment has changed as well.
How is it possible that OCD is not present in Taiwan??
I found it interesting that many of the top researchers received monies from drug companies. I worked in the medical field for quite some time and you would be surprised at how often doctors prescribe specific medications not because of pay offs (or advisor pay - call it what you want), but because the sales rep is good looking - I kidd you not!!! Sometimes the medicine worked and sometimes it didn't, but I wouldn't be surprised if sometimes it was in the patients head that it worked ( I worked for a medical md, not a psycologist).
The section discussing "broken brain" was interesting. To think of sexual dysfunction or bad moral judgement as really just a result of a broken brain was certainly eye-opening. It was a short section, but it is something to think about - I mean really, if we know where sexual pleasure is located in the brain and we can fix it with medication such as Viagra, it is just as easy to say it is a result of a broken brain. As far as OCD has come at this point, it still has a way to go - which is a positive thing......
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