title: Influence of age of onset on clinical features in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
abstract: We compared early-onset and late-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients in terms of demographic and clinical features. One hundred sixteen outpatients whose primary diagnosis was OCD according to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria were recruited. Early-onset (n=50) and late-onset (n=66) OCD groups were compared with respect to demographic variables and scores obtained on various scales. A male gender predominance was found in early-onset OCD group. Symmetry/exactness obsessions, religious obsessions, hoarding/saving obsessions, and hoarding/collecting compulsions also were significantly more frequent in the early-onset group than in the late-onset group. The results may suggest a phenotypic difference between the two groups. Further studies are needed to investigate the differences between early-onset and late-onset OCD groups to examine the hypothesis that early-onset OCD is a distinct subtype of the disorder.
authors.affiliation: Istanbul University, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Istanbul, Turkey. rtukel@superonline.com
authors.forename: Raşit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tükel
authors.forename: Erhan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ertekin
authors.forename: Serap
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Batmaz
authors.forename: Filiz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Alyanak
authors.forename: Atiye
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sözen
authors.forename: Banu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Aslantaş
authors.forename: Hatice
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Atli
authors.forename: Ilker
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ozyildirim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D015897:Comorbidity; D003710:Demography; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires