Posted by Racer on February 10, 2008, at 13:03:53
In reply to ritalin for ocd, posted by emilio on February 10, 2008, at 3:35:26
> can ritalin help with ocd???
The one word is "depends."
Whether any medication helps with any disorder is pretty individual -- what helps one person won't necessarily help another. The only way to find out what helps you with a disorder is to try treatment options until you find the one that works best.
OCD is considered an anxiety spectrum disorder, so a stimulant would be counterintuitive, but that doesn't mean it won't help you. That's where it gets individual -- you'd have to try it, and see how you react. Stimulants may make it worse, but if that happens, you'd know pretty quickly and be able to stop them without trouble. That's the benefit of trying a stimulant: you should know whether or not it will help in a very short period of time. Other options, such as SSRIs or TCAs, usually require a much longer time to show whether they'll help or not.
For what it's worth, I have an anxiety disorder and -- well, the official phrasing on my psychopharmacologist's reports is "obsessive compulsive personality traits," but I do have mild OCD as well -- and I take Wellbutrin and Concerta (a long acting form of the medication in Ritalin). I've found the combination very helpful. When I do get the intrusive thoughts of OCD -- I'm mostly pure obsessive, very few and very mild compulsions which don't cause impairment -- they're worse than without the medications, much stronger, but they're also much, much less frequent. I counter them as often as possible through behavioral means -- usually by saying something unrelated out loud -- and that's helpful enough. Since the medications in question are the most effective I've found for my depression, it's worth it to me to continue them despite the minor problem with the OCD issues, and those issues occur much less frequently.
So, that's a very long way of saying, "Depends."
poster:Racer
thread:811816
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080207/msgs/811843.html