In this article, we provide a “simple and practical” guide to screening for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
For links to ALL our articles about OCD, see:
Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders (Main Menu)
In another article on this website, we noted that:
- The diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder is typically delayed by many years after the onset of symptoms.
- This is a HUGE problem because this delay—during the critical periods of adolescence and young adulthood—has harmful effects on various aspects of the person’s life (Pellegrini et al., 2025).
For more on this, please see the following article:
OCD: Missed/delayed diagnosis and inappropriate/inadequate treatment are common
The American Psychiatric Association’s Practice guideline for the treatment of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder noted that “OCD is likely to be underdiagnosed unless specific screening occurs” (Koran et al., 2007).
Problem: Screening for OCD is not easy, partly because it can present with many different types or categories of symptoms (Brakoulias et al., 2026; Stein et al., 2019). These include, for example, intrusive thoughts, excessive cleaning, excessive checking, and so on.
So, in this article, we provide a “simple and practical” guide to screening for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).