DSM-5-TR diagnostic criteria summary
OCD requires:
- Presence of obsessions, compulsions, or both:
- Compulsions, repetitive behaviors (e.g., washing, checking, ordering) or mental acts (e.g., praying, counting, repeating words) the person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession; aimed at preventing distress or a feared event but not realistically connected.
- Not attributable to a substance or another medical condition.
- Not better explained by another mental disorder (excessive worry in GAD; preoccupation with appearance in body dysmorphic disorder; ritualized eating in eating disorders; etc.).
Specifiers: insight (good/fair, poor, absent/delusional), tic-related.
Source: American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR), p. 263–270.
Differential diagnosis
- F42.3 Hoarding Disorder, persistent difficulty discarding possessions independent of value; separated from OCD in DSM-5-TR.
- F45.22 Body Dysmorphic Disorder, preoccupation with perceived physical defect; repetitive behaviors are appearance-focused.
- F50.x Eating Disorders, ritualized food restriction, eating, or compensatory behaviors; differential rests on whether thoughts are food/weight-focused (eating disorder) vs other content (OCD).
- F41.1 Generalized Anxiety Disorder, excessive worry about real-life concerns; OCD obsessions are more intrusive, ego-dystonic, and triggered by specific stimuli.
- F60.5 Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder, pervasive pattern of preoccupation with order, perfectionism, and control; ego-syntonic vs OCD's ego-dystonic obsessions.
- F84.0 Autism Spectrum Disorder, restricted repetitive behaviors are ego-syntonic and developmentally rooted, vs OCD's ego-dystonic anxiety-driven compulsions.
Common comorbidities
OCD has very high lifetime comorbidity. Common co-occurring conditions: Major Depressive Disorder (F33, F32, up to 60% lifetime), Anxiety Disorders (F40.x, F41.x), Tic Disorders (F95.x, particularly in early-onset OCD), Body Dysmorphic Disorder (F45.22), and Hoarding Disorder (F42.3). Co-administer PHQ-9 and GAD-7 alongside the Y-BOCS.
Sources
- American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR), F42.2, p. 263–270.
- Goodman, W. K., et al. (1989). The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. I. Development, use, and reliability. Archives of General Psychiatry, 46(11), 1006–1011.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ICD-10-CM Official Coding Guidelines.