Word: ocd
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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That's something Fallon realized a little more than a decade ago. He was studying obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) when he noticed it had a lot in common with hypochondria. "Both disorders," he says, "involve intrusive, worrisome thoughts, the need for reassurance and a low tolerance for uncertainty." Psychiatrists had lately come to think that OCD could be treated with Prozac and similar drugs, and Fallon decided the medications might work for hypochondria as well. With only 57 subjects, the study was too small to be definitive, but it was certainly promising: about 75% of those who got the drug...
...many in the placebo group, which led Fallon to take an even closer look. His conclusion: hypochondriacs may actually represent three different groups whose problems look superficially similar. Those in the first really do have a variant of OCD. Those in the second have a problem more like depression, often triggered by something that makes them feel guilty--an affair, perhaps--or by a loss, like the death of a close relative. And the third group consists of people who somatize--which means they focus an inordinate amount of attention on their bodies. A pain that most people wouldn...
...young woman who said she had a ritual before every final exam. There was a tree near Lowell House and she would run circles around it… alone. She thought that brought her good luck. I asked her if she had considered going to Health Services for OCD treatments, but she told me she was comfortable with...
...Once I’ve lost in things twice consecutively, I can’t wear them again in a tournament match,” Hall said. “I have OCD [obsessive-compulsive disorder] when it comes to matching. My sports bra has to match my spandex which has to match my bandanna...
...channel my OCD into repeatedly clicking the send/receive button on Outlook in anticipation of my package notification, I muse about how I might try to remedy this cable drought were I a mob boss from New Jersey rather than a lowly student journalist from Harvard. But then again, I’ll never know. I don’t have...