Introduction/Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: The Hidden Epidemic

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This supplement arises from a breakfast symposiumseries titled "OCD: New Perspectives and Practical Management" that took place at the American PsychiatricAssociation annual meeting in May 1996. It presents anoverview of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) andexamples of related spectrum disorders and reviews somerecent research being done in pharmacologic and behaviortherapy, the two most successful types of therapy forOCD. In the papers that follow, Sasson and colleaguespresent a world view of OCD; Christopher J. McDouglediscusses pharmacologic treatment of refractory OCD;Flament and Bisserbe review some recent studies comparingSRI therapies; and Baer and Greist discuss the use ofbehavioral therapy in OCD patients, including an innovativepatient-initiated, telephone voice-activated behaviortherapy program.