New Delhi, Aug 23 - Twenty-one-year-old Ashok Singh finds it difficult to study or work as his mind is flooded with sexual images most of the time. Urvasi Thakur, a homemaker, wakes up early to clean her house and does it again after her husband leaves for office.

Both Singh and Thakur are unaware that they are victims of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) though the nature of their individual problem differs. A new study points to these gender differences among men and women suffering from OCD.

Urban, educated men are more prone to sexual obsessions as compared to women, who have higher chances of being compulsive cleaners. Also, men see early onset of OCD as compared to women, says the study conducted by four doctors at the Department of Psychiatry in the G.B. Pant Hospital.

'It is considered to be a common psychiatric problem. But there is a slight behavioral change as compared to men and women,' R.C. Jiloha, head of the psychiatry department, told IANS.

Jiloha, who was one of the doctors involved in the study, said: 'Men see OCD at an early age and are thus less likely to be married. It is commonly seen that they have sexual obsessions, whereas woman think of cleaning and washing all the time.'

The study was conducted among 66 patients who had attended the OCD clinic in the department of psychiatry in the G.B. Pant Hospital and associated Maulana Azad Medical College between December 2007 to October 2008. While 31 were men, the rest were women.

The study, published in the Delhi Psychiatry Journal, said while men start showing symptoms at the age of 19, women get OCD at 23.

It is usually because they don't recognise the symptoms and come to the hospital late, said Ashish Khandelwal, who was also involved in the study. 'Men usually come to us at the age of 24.35 and women at the age of 27.34,' he said.

He said the study showed most patients were from an urban background and educated.