Vol. 7, Issue 1, Part D (2025)

Background: Marital adjustment is a key factor in fostering emotional well-being and harmony within married life. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a chronic and often disabling mental health condition that can significantly impact various aspects of an individual’s functioning. Research indicates that OCD can disrupt occupational performance, social interactions, and interpersonal relationships, including those within marriage. OCD is a chronic condition that affects 2.3% of peoples in the normal population.

Aim: To compare the level of marital adjustment between individuals diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and matched healthy controls

Materials and Method: This study was cross-sectional in nature. It included 60 people diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and 60 healthy individuals of the same age and gender. The patients were selected from the outpatient and inpatient departments of the Psychiatry Department at AIIMS, Jodhpur, and Rajasthan. The healthy group was chosen from different areas of Jodhpur city. The informed consent was taken from all the participants before initiating the study. The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) was applying to measure type of OCD symptoms and the severity of symptoms. Marital adjustment was checked using a Marital Adjustment Questionnaire. Information about the participants’ socio-demographic details was recorded using a self-made form. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) was given to the healthy group to assess their overall health.

Results: The findings showed that individuals with OCD had much lower marital adjustment scores compared to healthy controls (p<0.001). Among the OCD group, females reported significantly lower marital adjustment than males (p=0.038). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant effect of group (p<0.001), however the effect of gender (p=0.110) and the interaction between group and gender (p=0.080) were not statistically significant.

Conclusions: The study demonstrates that OCD is significantly associated with poorer marital adjustment, with female patients experiencing comparatively greater challenges. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating marital counselling and family-cantered strategies into treatment approaches, aiming to enhance relationship quality and overall well-being in individuals with OCD.