These behaviors or mental acts are aimed at preventing or reducing distress or preventing some dreaded event or situation; however, these activities are not logically or practically connected to the issue, or, they are excessive. In addition, at some point during the course of the disorder, the individual must realize that his or her obsessions or compulsions are unreasonable or excessive.Moreover, the obsessions or compulsions must be time-consuming, often taking up more than one hour per day, or cause impairment in social, occupational, or scholastic functioning. It is helpful to quantify the severity of symptoms and impairment before and during treatment for OCD. In addition to the persons estimate of the time spent each day harboring obsessive-compulsive thoughts or behaviors, concrete tools can be used to gauge the persons condition. This may be done with rating scales, such as the Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS; expert rating) or the obsessive-compulsive inventory (OCI-R; self-rating). With measurements such as these, psychiatric consultation can be more appropriately determined, as it has been standardized.In regards to diagnosing, the health professional also looks to make sure that the signs of obsessions and compulsions are not the results of any drugs, prescription or recreational, that the patient may be taking.There are several types of obsessive thoughts that are found commonly in those with OCD.
Neurogenic cough
Some cases of chronic cough may be attributed to a sensory neuropathic disorder. Treatment for neurogenic cough may include the use of certain neuralgia medications. Coughing may occur in tic disorders such as Tourette syndrome, although it should be distinguished from throat-clearing in this disorder. Other
Cough may also be caused by conditions affecting the lung tissue such as bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis, interstitial lung diseases and sarcoidosis. Coughing can also be triggered by benign or malignant lung tumors or mediastinal masses. Through irritation of the nerve, diseases of the external auditory canal (wax, for example) can also cause cough. Cardiovascular diseases associated with cough are heart failure, pulmonary infarction and aortic aneurysm. Nocturnal cough is associated with heart failure, as the heart does not compensate for the increased volume shift to the pulmonary circulation, in turn causing pulmonary edema and resultant cough. Other causes of nocturnal cough include asthma, post-nasal drip and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Another cause of cough occurring preferentially in supine position is recurrent aspiration.Given its irritant nature to mammal tissues, capsaicin is widely used to determine the cough threshold and as a tussive stimulant in clinical research of cough suppressants. Capsaicin is what makes chili peppers spicy, and might explain why workers in factories with these fruits can develop a cough. Coughing may also be used for social reasons, and as such is not always involuntary. A voluntary cough, often written as "ahem",  can be used to attract attention or express displeasure, as a form of nonverbal, paralingual metacommunication.