title: Traumatic events and obsessive compulsive disorder in children and adolescents: is there a link?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The extant literature supports an association between psychological trauma and development of OCD in adults, and this link is a plausible mediator for environment-gene interactions leading to phenotypic expression of OCD.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To explore the relationship between OCD and traumatic life events in children and adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  We examined the prevalence of traumatic life events and PTSD in a large sample of systematically assessed children with OCD. OCD symptoms and severity were assessed using the Children's Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS) in those with and without concurrent PTSD.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Rate of PTSD and trauma exposure was higher in children with OCD than in a comparable control group of non-OCD youth matched for age, gender and SES. Children with concurrent PTSD had more intrusive fears and distress and less control over their rituals than children with OCD but without PTSD. Total CY-BOCS scores were higher in those with concurrent PTSD. Specific type of OCD symptoms was not altered by a PTSD diagnosis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A history of psychologically traumatic events may be over-represented in children with OCD. Given the need to search for non-genetic factors that may lead to onset of OCD, better and more systematic methods to obtain and quantify psychologically traumatic life events are needed in clinical populations.
authors.affiliation: Child and Youth Mental Health Program, British Columbia Children's Hospital, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Daniel L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Lafleur
authors.forename: Carter
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Petty
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mancuso
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: McCarthy
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Biederman
authors.forename: Alyssa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Faro
authors.forename: Hannah C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Levy
authors.forename: Daniel A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Geller
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology