Family burden, quality of life and disability in obsessive compulsive disorder: an Indian perspective.
BACKGROUND
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric disorder that often tends to run a chronic course. The lifetime prevalence of OCD is around 1-3%, which is twice as prevalent as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.


OBJECTIVE
To asses the family burden, quality of life (QoL) and disability in patients suffering from at least moderately ill OCD and then to compare them with schizophrenia patients of comparable severity.


METHODS
We recruited 70 consecutive subjects (OCD=35, schizophrenia=35) who met study criteria between March 2005 and March 2006 from the psychiatric services of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore, India.


METHODS
The severity of illness was rated using the Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S). Instruments used in the current study were the Family Burden Schedule, the World Health Organization (WHO) QoL (Bref) and the WHO - Disability Assessment Schedule (DAS).


METHODS
The Fisher's exact test/chi-square test was used to compare categorical variables and the independent sample t test was used to analyze continuous variables. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to compare the groups after controlling for potential confounding variables. Pearson's correlation was used for correlation analysis.


RESULTS
Overall family burden, financial burden and disruption of family routines were significantly higher in schizophrenia patients compared to OCD although the groups did not differ with respect to other domains of family burden. On the WHO QoL, OCD patients were comparable to schizophrenia patients with respect to the psychological and social domains. On the WHO - DAS, both the groups were similar in all the domains except getting around.


CONCLUSIONS
Severe OCD is associated with significant disability, poor QoL and high family burden, often comparable to schizophrenia. Therefore, there is an urgent need to increase the sensitivity among healthcare professionals to recognize and treat OCD.
Gururaj
G P
GP
OCD Clinic, Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore- 560 029, India.
Math
S Bada
SB
Reddy
J Y C
JY
Chandrashekar
C R
CR
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D044466:Asian People; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D017281:Cost of Illness; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications / Q000191:economics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires