| Resumo: | The COVID-19 pandemic forced innumerous measures to be implemented to promote social distancing, quarantining and a more rigorous health etiquette, which had a big impact in mental health. Individuals with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) seem to have been affected in a very particular way, especially those with obsessions of contamination, due to the nature of their disease. In this cross-sectional study we aimed to evaluate the individual perception of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, concerning the variation of their symptomatology since the start of the pandemic, and if those with obsessions of contamination were more severely affected. Fifty participants were inquired to fill questionnaires with various sociodemographic and clinical variables, including their perception of symptom variation. The majority (66%) of individuals felt an exacerbation of their symptoms, explained by increased isolation, more time spent at home and increased difficulty in carrying out the cognitive-behavioral therapy. No statistically significant differences were found between individuals from the Contamination/ Cleaning cluster and those from other OCD clusters regarding symptom variation. Some individuals from the Contamination/ Cleaning cluster reported an improvement of their symptoms which in turn might be justified by the less exposure to their triggers and not by a real improvement of their OCD.
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