How common is OCD?
Until recently, OCD was considered a rare condition by mental health professionals because only a small minority of their patients had the disease. The disorder often went unrecognized because many of those afflicted with OCD are often secretive about their obsessive-compulsive symptoms out of concern that they will be perceived as "crazy". In fact, many become masters at camouflaging their symptoms by either performing them in private, by avoiding situations likely to trigger them, or, in the case of compulsions that must be performed in public, by inconspicuously integrating them with ordinary activities. For example, for over twenty years an OCD sufferer successfully concealed from her husband that she had to repeat most activities in multiples of three, ranging from lighting a cigarette to flushing a toilet.
A survey conducted in the early 1980s by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) provided knowledge about the prevalence of OCD. The NIMH survey showed that OCD affects more than 2 percent of the population, meaning that OCD is more common than such severe mental illnesses as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or panic disorder. OCD strikes people of all ethnic groups. Males and females are equally affected. The social and economic costs of OCD were estimated to be $8.4 billion in 1990 (DuPont et al, 1994).
Greater professional and public awareness of OCD, via emergence of patient advocacy groups such as the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation (OCF) of New Haven, CT, coupled with a more optimistic treatment outlook, may explain why more patients with OCD are now being brought to clinical attention.