Original Research

A screening of obsessive compulsive disorder in pharmacy students

Roba F. Sherif, Sanna A. Azzobeak, Rowaida M. Almozoghi and Nagat M. Saeed

Abstract

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental disorder that causes repeated unwanted thoughts or sensations, or do something over and over again. It is affecting all ages in the world. It is unusual for symptoms to begin after the age of 35 and half of people develop problems before 20. This making university students a target of OCD. This study investigates the prevalence of symptoms of OCD and identifies possible risk factors among pharmacy students of University of Tripoli, Libya. 80 pharmacy students registered in the final academic year 2019/2020 were enrolled in this study. All the participants were females ranging of 22 to 24 years old of a same environmental background. This study is based on a validated questionnaire for screening of OCD as mentioned by the American Psychiatric Association without modification. A total of 63 students have returned the questionnaire (response rate, 78.8%). The study shows that OCD symptom is relatively common among pharmacy students. The most common symptoms are losing something of importance (71%) and checking things over and over or repeat actions many times to be sure they are done properly (63%). Among OCD symptoms, the most common associated trigger factors were stress and phobia which representing 62% of the participated students. This study indicates that pharmacy students are at risk of being susceptible to getting OCD. OCD affects academic performance and quality of student life, therefore, a psychological and health services for university students should be implanted.

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2021-06-30
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