Culture is a matrix that constitutes the background against which we should understand the biological, psychological and social dimensions of mental disorder. No doubt however OCD has been attracting the attention of researchers in aspects other than its biological nature, especially that of its nosological status, diagnostic criteria and the cultural coloring of its symptomatology. A syndrome related to OCD has been recognized for more than 300 years (1). Early descriptions focused on different aspects of the syndrome and reflected the prevailing culture of the observer. French phenomenologists emphasized the importance of doubt and loss of will (2,3). The German view focused on the irrational nature of the thoughts, linking it to psychoses (4). Previous Egyptian studies on psychiatric phenomenology have shown a prevalence of culturally determined symptomatology, where religion and prevailing traditions seemed to color not only the clinical picture of the condition, but also the patients' attitudes about their disorder (5-7). All Egyptian OCD patients studied hitherto had religions ruminations and sexual impulses and related issues. Ideas, images, and ruminations were more common among university-educated patients, whereas rituals and impulses prevailed among those of low education. Fears were directed toward diseases, death, madness, germs, and extraterrestrial powers. Also, Egyptian OCD patients frequently presented with symptoms other than obsessions or compulsions, e.g., anxiety, depression, or social incapacity (8). The introduction of the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y- BOCS) by Goodman et al. provided a specific measure of the type and severity of symptoms of OCD that is not influenced by the type of obsessions or compulsions present, and thus provides a structured tool for the phenomenological study of OCD symptoms (9). The present study was performed with the aim of studying the nature and severity of OCD symptoms in a sample of obsessive Egyptian patients and to determine the impact of culture on their symptomatology in comparison to the findings of other studies. An attempt was made to assess the comorbidity with OCD and to investigate the premorbid personality patterns prevailing in the studied sample.