Q: My friend is a patient of OCD; he has an irresistible urge to observe the sexual organs of either sex while in their company causing great anxiety. He is now on drug Paroxetine. I want to know his prognosis and more about CBT and books on CBT available in india.

A:Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is an illness characterised by remissions and relapses. With treatment, about 25% of these patients recover completely, 25% do not improve and 50% improve to the extent that they can attend to their social and occupational functions reasonably well despite having some symptoms. Poor prognosis is usually due to poor treatment compliance, delay in starting treatment, stressful life conditions, poor premorbid adjustment to interpersonal relations and environment. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapeutic treatment aimed at identifying and correcting dysfunctional beliefs leading to errors in thinking. These errors of thinking are presumed to cause some mental illnesses. Books on CBT are not available here, but they can be ordered on the net from Amazon books or npb which publish books on psychotherapy. CBT is given by experts trained in psychotherapy and is not advisable to do self treatment in a field where high degree of objectivity and clinical skill is required.