Since her teens, a 30-year-old woman surnamed Chu has spent about three hours every day meticulously sweeping the floors at her home and the remainder of the day checking to make sure each item of furniture in the house is arranged properly.
Not knowing what to do, Chu's father brought her to a doctor for an examination. She was diagnosed as an obsessive compulsive and is presently being treated in the psychiatric ward at the Adventist Hospital (台|w醫院).
Hsu Cheng-dian (3正典), a psychiatrist at the hospital, said yesterday at a press conference on new treatment methods for obsessive compulsive disorder sufferers that the woman's symptoms were typical of those suffering from the disorder.
According to Hsu, 2 to 3 percent of the population may suffer from an obsessive compulsive disorder syndrome.
Doctors break down patients suffering from obsessive compulsive disorders into three main groups, said Hsu.
The first includes the disorders anorexia, bulimia and others that focus on physical appearance.
The second is an impulsive disorder. Sufferers repeatedly hurt themselves themselves, or steal or gamble compulsively.
The last disorder is a nervous disorder, which mainly affects children.
They continually repeat the same movements or engage in the same activities, such as watching TV or fingernail biting.
Boys aged 6 to 19 and women aged 15 to 29 are most likely to contract obsessive compulsive disorder, and women are one-and-a-half to two times more likely to suffer from the disorder than men.
Chu's father pointed out that his daughter's symptoms began when she was studying to get into high school.
"She broke under the pressure and that's when the symptoms started," said Chu's father.
About 80 percent of patients suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder can be successfully treated through a combination of medicinal and psychiatric treatment, Hsu said.
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