In medicine, a neurosis in which people are continuously bothered by persistent ideas that make them do repetitive, ritualized actions which they have no control over: An obsessive-compulsive disorder often begins in adolescence and continues to fluctuate or come and go over time.

People with obsessive-compulsive disorders often suffer from very strong feelings of having to do something that can't be controlled by themselves and so they also may have depressions and anxieties.

For a long time, obsessive-compulsive disorders have been treated with psychoanalysis or behavior therapy.