Obsessive-Compulsive Cognitions, Symptoms and Religiousness in an Iranian Population 483
does not seem to be a strong relationship between relig-
ion and OCD [5]. Instead of being a determinant of the
disorder, religion appears to be just another area where
OCD expresses itself. Clinicians should be sensitive to
the fact that religious obsessions may be more prevalent
in certain cultures with which they may not well acqu aint.
Nevertheless, religious obsessions should be treated as
obsessions rather than religious phenomena.
While a consensus seems to have reached on the uni-
versality of the form of OCD symptoms, the content of
the obsessions and compulsions appears to differ across
cultures. There is a risk that OCD may be missed if it’s
manifested in behaviors which are considered appropri-
ate within a religions context. On the other hand, reli-
gious obsessions are common, more so when the variety
of obsessions experienced is greater, but that they are not
related to the severity of other OCD symptoms, suggest-
ing that religious obsessions are an embellishment of
disorder rather than a determinan t [21]. Religious aspects
of OCD have also been noted by authors who study ob-
servant Orthodox Jews [20,22], and some Catholics [23].
The frequency with which different OCD themes played
out in life’s secular and religious spheres may vary with
the intensity of religious observance within cultural
groups. Religious obsessions were found to be quite
common in a small sample of ultra-Orthodox Jewish pa-
tients [20] and in three samples of Muslim patients, one
in Saudi Arabia [24], one in Bahrain [7] and one in Egypt
[18], but not in a fourth form Turkey [25]. However,
there is no indication that groups with more heavily reli-
gious have higher incidence of OCD [26]. Thus, it may
be concluded that culture has an effect on the way OCD
manifests itself but it does not increase its prevalence in
population.
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