Do clergy recognize and respond appropriately to the many themes in obsessive-compulsive disorder?: Data from a Pacific Island community

ABSTRACT

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating psychiatric condition with high rates of misdiagnoses and extended treatment gaps. These may derive in part from poor mental health literacy (MHL) among clergy, who are frequently consulted by those with mental health problems. Therefore, the current study examined the MHL of OCD among clergy on Guam. Clergy (N = 110) provided diagnostic impressions, treatment recommendations, and referral recommendations in response to one of six randomized vignettes describing a common manifestation of OCD: contamination, symmetry, religion, homosexuality, pedophilia, or aggression. Clergy typically misidentified OCD (64.5%), especially in vignettes describing taboo thoughts. They more often recommended that the cases described in the vignettes receive pastoral/biblical counseling and a referral to a clergyperson for professional help rather than professional medical or mental health services. Overall, results reveal needs among clergy for increased MHL, especially concerning OCD's heterogeneous symptomology and evidence-based treatments.

KEYWORDS:

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• mental health literacy
• clergy
• misidentification

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Research and Capacity Building for Minority Entities under Grant #93.433.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration of interest statement

The authors reported no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, J.M.G., upon reasonable request.

Notes

1 Participants’ ratings of psychotherapy and their likelihood of referring the case to mental health services shared 41% of the variance (p < .001). An exploratory factor analysis yielded a factor score based on both variables: subsequently used to quantify participants' ratings of psychotherapy in the MANOVA.

2 The linear equation is as follows: p = [100 / A – 1] [A – r], where p is the percentile, A is the number of ranks used, and r is the rank assigned to the particular professional for referral. This equation produces a percentile of 100 for a first-ranked item; and a percentile of 0 for an unranked item (considered a tie for the last rank).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR; Grant Number 93.433) under the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) Program on Research and Capacity Building for Minority Entities.