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Mansa Clinic's OCD Clinic in Aundh, Pune offers specialist assessment and treatment for OCD using exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy, psychiatric medication management, and tDCS as an adjunct for treatment-resistant cases. Ms. Aditi Dharmadhikari (Masters, Monash University, Australia) leads ERP therapy, supported by Dr. Ninad Baste for psychiatric oversight.
OCD affects approximately 2–3% of India's population - around 30 million people. Yet the average delay between symptom onset and a correct diagnosis in India is 7–10 years (Journal of Psychiatry Research, 2021). Part of the problem is public understanding. OCD has been reduced in popular culture to a personality quirk - the person who likes their desk tidy, who checks the door twice. This is not OCD.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a clinical condition characterised by intrusive, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) that cause significant distress, and repetitive behaviours or mental acts (compulsions) performed to reduce that distress - temporarily. The temporary relief reinforces the compulsion, which strengthens the obsession, which demands more elaborate compulsions. This is the OCD cycle, and it is neurological in origin.
At its most severe, OCD occupies hours of a person's day, disrupts relationships, prevents employment, and causes a level of suffering that people with less visible conditions rarely experience. It is one of the most disabling conditions listed by the WHO - and one of the most treatable, when the right approach is applied.
Fear of germs, contamination, or spreading illness drives repeated handwashing, avoidance of public spaces, and elaborate cleaning rituals. This is the form most commonly recognised publicly - and the one most often dismissed as excessive cleanliness. In clinical OCD, the distress and functional impairment are severe.
Intrusive thoughts about harming others - a family member, a stranger, oneself - are experienced by many people with OCD. These thoughts are ego-dystonic: they are horrifying to the person having them, not expressions of desire. The terror and shame they produce cause enormous suffering. Understanding that these thoughts are an OCD symptom, not a character indicator, is often the first step in recovery.
'Pure-O' describes OCD where the compulsions are primarily mental rather than behavioural - repeated reassurance-seeking in one's own mind, mental reviewing, thought suppression. Because there are no visible rituals, Pure-O is frequently undiagnosed or misidentified as generalised anxiety. Ms. Aditi Dharmadhikari's training in OCD-specific CBT protocols includes explicit preparation for Pure-O presentations.
Obsessions about sin, blasphemy, having committed a moral wrong, or being fundamentally bad or evil are among the most distressing OCD presentations - and among those most likely to be dismissed as excessive religious sensitivity rather than recognised as a clinical condition requiring treatment.
OCD most commonly emerges in childhood or adolescence. In children, it may present as lengthy bedtime rituals, excessive reassurance-seeking from parents, refusal to touch objects, or repeated confessions of 'bad thoughts'. Dr. Vidya Ganapathy and Ms. Aditi Dharmadhikari collaborate on paediatric OCD presentations, providing both the psychiatric assessment and the ERP-based therapy.
ERP is the gold-standard psychological treatment for OCD, recommended by NICE (UK), the American Psychological Association, and the International OCD Foundation. It works by systematically exposing the person to the triggers of their obsessions - in a carefully graded hierarchy - while refraining from the compulsion that would normally follow. Over repeated exposures, the anxiety response to the trigger diminishes. The OCD cycle is broken.
ERP requires a trained therapist who understands OCD-specific treatment and can distinguish between genuine therapeutic exposure and inadvertent accommodation of the OCD. Ms. Aditi Dharmadhikari, who completed her Masters at Monash University, Australia, and trained in OCD and anxiety disorder treatment, leads ERP therapy at Mansa Clinic.
For patients who have completed a full course of ERP with partial but incomplete response, and for whom medication augmentation has not been sufficient, tDCS offers a non-invasive neurostimulation option. Research supports tDCS targeting the supplementary motor area for reduction of compulsive symptoms. At Mansa Clinic, tDCS for OCD is prescribed by Dr. Baste and administered in coordination with ongoing ERP therapy.
With a Master's in Clinical Psychology from Pune University and a Master's in Counselling and Psychotherapy from Monash University, Australia, Ms. Dharmadhikari's primary clinical specialisation is OCD and anxiety disorders. She uses disorder-specific CBT protocols and ERP - including adapted approaches for Pure-O and paediatric OCD. She is also completing training in cognitive assessments for dementia screening.
Dr. Baste provides the psychiatric component of OCD management - diagnostic assessment, SSRI and clomipramine prescribing and monitoring, and tDCS referral for treatment-resistant cases. His collaborative approach with Ms. Dharmadhikari ensures that the full NICE-guideline treatment pathway is available within Mansa Clinic.
