Health beliefs in OCD
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The health beliefs of people with OCD and their family members
IRAS ID
131336
Contact name
Rebecca Pedley
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Research summary
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is ranked within the top 10 most disabling disorders by the World Health Organisation, causing significant loss of income and reduced quality of life to sufferers. It affects approximately 1-3% of the population. Research has shown that family members of people with OCD also experience significant burden and distress as a result of the disorder; some studies have found that the level of burden is similar to that experienced by family members of people with psychotic disorders. Family members of people with OCD can be drawn into assisting their relative with their repetitive rituals and may change their daily routine in order to ‘accommodate’ their relative’s OCD symptoms.
Research has shown that the way in which people understand their physical and mental health problems can influence the way that people cope with the health concern. However, little research has studied the way in which people with OCD and their relatives understand the mental health problem. In the proposed study, people with OCD and the relatives of people with OCD will be individually interviewed to explore how people affected by the OCD understand the disorder. Analysis of these interviews will give an insight into how people think about OCD as a health problem and whether this has any relationship to how they cope with the disorder. This information could potentially contribute to interventions for people with OCD and their families, which could improve how they cope with OCD. It is also hoped that the results of this study will inform the development of a questionnaire assessing OCD understanding (to be submitted as an ethics application at a later date), making it possible to test statistically whether understanding of OCD influences how well people cope.
REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/NW/0506
Date of REC Opinion
19 Jul 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion