Animal Observation Holds Key to Understanding OCD in Humans

About 3 percent of the population in the United States has a condition called obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD causes people to feel driven to perform repetitive behaviors or rituals, such as pacing, hand-washing, repeatedly checking to see if doors are locked, appliances are turned off, etc.

After studying OCD in animals, mental health professionals now believe that, when it comes to helping those with OCD control their symptoms, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University observed animals both at the zoo and in their natural habitat, including bears, rats, and gazelles, noting the different types of compulsive behavior displayed by the animals, as well as which behaviors were actually healthy. They then used the information that they gathered to create an animal database of compulsive behaviors, to which physicians can now refer when evaluating OCD symptoms in their human patients.

Animal observation also lead to the practice of videotaping patients’ OCD actions and then playing the tapes back for those patients, a process now considered to be one of the best behavioral (non-pharmaceutical) methods available for treating the physical symptoms of OCD. People who display compulsive behavior tend to react strongly to the sight of themselves engaged in these actions, and respond better to treatment (perhaps because they are more motivated to do so).









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