What’s the Difference Between OCPD and OCD?

While the inflexible characteristics of OCPD are engrained and seen as natural, the intrusive thoughts of OCD create distress and feel inconsistent with your personality.

Given that they both entail inflexible behaviours and fixations, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may appear similar. However, you can experience these two different illnesses in quite different ways.

Distressing obsessions and compulsions characterise OCD, which was formerly considered an anxiety disease, but inflexible personality features associated with OCPD typically don't cause distress.

What is OCD?

With OCD, you may experience recurrent, unwelcome thoughts called obsessions as well as compulsions, which are repetitive acts or ideas you conduct in reaction to your obsessions.

The content and severity of these symptoms can vary greatly, and they frequently focus on topics or issues that are very important to the individual, such as morality, relationships, safety, or personal values. OCD thus frequently results in severe distress and challenges with day-to-day living.

OCD was formerly listed as an anxiety disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. However, more recent editions have classified it as a distinct category from anxiety disorders, such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR).

According to research, 2-3% of people may have OCD at some point in their lives. The estimated prevalence among close relatives of those with an OCD diagnosis is greater, at 10–11%.

OCD symptoms

OCD's primary symptoms include:

• Obsessions/intrusive thoughts: undesired, painful, and persistent desires, thoughts, or visions
• Compulsions: acts or mental processes that are carried out to reduce anxiety or prevent feared outcomes; they can take the form of outward manifestations or internalised ideas.
• Fear and anxiety: prolonged anxiety or panic brought on by intrusive thoughts or the expectation of experiencing these thoughts

What is OCPD?

The personality disorder known as OCPD is characterised by a pattern of persistent perfectionism, an obsession with neatness, and a strong need for control. These characteristics frequently lead to problems with social and personal functioning and are comparatively stable over time.

One of the most prevalent personality disorders is OCPD. According to some studies, it affects roughly 8.7% of patients receiving outpatient mental health treatment and 23.3% of those admitted to psychiatric facilities.

However, OCPD is frequently underdiagnosed despite very high incidence rates, particularly in high achievers who effectively use these features.

OCPD symptoms

A widespread pattern of attitudes and behaviours that may include the following is indicative of OCPD:

• perfectionism
• excessive devotion to work
• excessive frugality
• rigidity and stubbornness
• inflexibility and rigidity
• excessive conscientiousness
• reluctance to delegate

How to tell the difference between OCD and OCPD

While OCD is characterised by distressing thoughts and repetitive behaviours, OCPD is characterised by persistent personality qualities such as rigidity and perfectionism that are frequently regarded to be ingrained in a person's character.

While those with OCPD may not view their characteristics as problematic or upsetting, those with OCD frequently recognise their behaviours as excessive and motivated by anxiety.

OCD and OCPD are separate disorders, yet they often co-occur.

While mental health professionals first disagreed over the relationship between the two disorders, some today propose that they affect one another or possibly constitute a separate subtype. According to certain hypotheses, OCPD may sometimes emerge as a coping mechanism following the development of OCD.

OCPD vs. OCD examples

OCD examples

• An OCD sufferer may wash their hands obsessively hundreds of times a day in an attempt to calm their worry of becoming contaminated. Their compulsion to carry out these rituals and their bothersome thoughts upset them, but they are unable to quit.
• Even though they have no desire or purpose to hurt someone, an OCD sufferer may have intrusive ideas or pictures of doing so, such as putting someone in front of a train. They can go into a loop of mental reassurance to deal with this distress, telling themselves over and over again that they would never act on their worries.

OCPD examples

• An OCPD sufferer may have very tight rules about how their workstation is set up, demanding exact configurations and taking an excessive amount of time to make sure everything is up to their high standards.
• When working on family plans or group projects, an OCPD person may want to supervise every detail and ensure that all guidelines and procedures are followed precisely. They could find it difficult to delegate authority or allow others to make choices, which can lead to conflict and tension within the family or group.

OCD vs. OCPD diagnostic requirements

The following are the DSM-5-TR criteria for OCD diagnosis:

• existence of compulsive behaviours, obsessions, or both
• obsessions or compulsions that require a lot of time—more than an hour each day—or that seriously disrupt daily functioning
• symptoms that are not brought on by a medical condition or a substance's physiological effects
• disruption that doesn't fit better within the description of another mental illness

The DSM-5-TR diagnostic criteria for OCPD include a pattern of widespread obsession with control, perfectionism, and neatness.

The precise requirements are as follows:

• obsession with guidelines, specifics, lists, arrangements, order, or timetables to the point where the main goal of the activity is forgotten
• Perfectionism that gets in the way of completing a task (perhaps focusing more on the method than the result)
• excessive attention to work and completing tasks at the expense of interests or relationships (not because of a need for money)
• overly strict in upholding one's own moral or ethical systems, regardless of one's ties to a particular culture or religion

• trouble discarding useless items, especially if they hold no sentimental significance
• unwillingness to delegate work to others until it meets one's requirements
• stinginess about oneself and other people (money could be seen as something to be saved for emergencies)
• inflexibility and obstinacy

Treatment for OCPD vs. OCD

Treatments for OCD usually consist of:

• Exposure and response prevention (ERP): ERP is a kind of cognitive behavioural treatment (CBT) in which phobias are deliberately exposed without the patient resorting to obsessive behaviours. The long-term objective is to lessen worry.
• Medications: SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, are generally regarded as the first-line treatment for OCD.

Treatments for OCPD frequently centre on:

• Therapy: Although additional study is required, psychotherapy—including psychodynamic therapy, CBT, schema therapy, and interpersonal psychotherapy—holds promise.
• Medication: SSRIs are frequently utilised, even though the Food and Drug Administration has not approved any drugs for OCPD. There has been conflicting evidence on their efficacy in OCPD, though. Limited research and case reports indicate the uneven effectiveness of mood stabilisers and antipsychotics.

Bottom line

Despite certain behavioural and fixational similarities, OCD and OCPD are two different mental health illnesses.

OCD is characterised by upsetting compulsions and obsessions that seriously interfere with day-to-day functioning. Conversely, long-lasting personality qualities like control and perfectionism are associated with OCPD, though they are not always distressing.

Do not hesitate to contact a mental health professional if you believe you may be exhibiting OCD or OCPD symptoms. To properly manage and address these issues, they can offer you an accurate diagnosis as well as point you in the direction of appropriate treatment alternatives.