A 29-year-old software engineer spends 3 hours daily checking whether he locked his car, despite having done so repeatedly. He recognizes these thoughts as excessive but cannot stop them. His Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) score is 24. In DSM-5, OCD is categorized under which chapter?
- A Anxiety Disorders
- B Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders
- C Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders
- D OCD and Related Disorders (separate chapter) ✓
Explanation
A major DSM-5 structural change was moving OCD from the Anxiety Disorders chapter (as in DSM-IV) to its own standalone chapter: 'Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders.' This chapter includes OCD, Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Hoarding Disorder, Trichotillomania (Hair-Pulling Disorder), Excoriation (Skin-Picking) Disorder, and others. The Y-BOCS score of 24 indicates moderate-to-severe OCD (0–7 subclinical, 8–15 mild, 16–23 moderate, 24–31 severe, 32–40 extreme). This nosological separation reflects distinct neurobiological underpinnings (cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuits).
Reference: Kaplan & Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry, 11th ed.
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Written and medically reviewed by the StethoPrep medical team.