Generic and illness-specific quality of life in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
BACKGROUND
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic and disabling disorder. It profoundly compromises various aspects of patients' everyday life, thus affecting their quality of life (QoL). Using generic instruments, several studies have confirmed severely impaired health-related QoL in patients diagnosed with OCD. However, there has been a dearth of research on illness-specific QoL.


OBJECTIVE
The present study aimed to further investigate subjective QoL in individuals with OCD with a focus on illness-specific aspects.


METHODS
To assess subjective QoL in a broad OCD sample, an internet survey was conducted with 123 participants with obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The survey comprised both a generic (WHOQOL-BREF) and a novel self-developed OCD-specific QoL measure (QoLOC). Psychopathology was determined with diagnostic standard instruments (self-report forms of: Y-BOCS, OCI-R, BDI-SF).


RESULTS
Regression analyses confirmed depression as the best predictor for decreased QoL. In addition, participants reported high despair resulting from OCD-related problems that differed across symptom subtypes. An exploratory factor analysis suggested four domains of OCD-specific problems tapped by the QoLOC: (1) depressiveness in association with OCD; (2) constraints in activities due to OCD symptoms or avoidance; (3) problems with partner and/or family due to OCD symptoms or avoidance; (4) self-concept/coping of own illness.


CONCLUSIONS
Results produced a comprehensive picture of QoL impairments and their relation to psychopathology in a representative OCD sample. Illness-specific concerns should be further addressed in QoL research in OCD because such problems are not sufficiently mirrored in generic QoL measures.
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. m.hauschildt@uke.de
Marit
M
Hauschildt
Lena
L
Jelinek
Sarah
S
Randjbar
Birgit
B
Hottenrott
Steffen
S
Moritz
D000328:Adult; D015897:Comorbidity; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult