Clinical features associated with increased severity of illness in tertiary clinic referred patients with obsessive compulsive disorder.
OBJECTIVE
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a prevalent and disabling condition. Specific patterns of psychiatric comorbidity, early age at onset, long duration of illness (DI) and untreated illness (DUI) have been associated with poor outcome in OCD. The present study was aimed to explore sociodemographic and clinical characteristics associated with increased severity of illness in a sample of OCD patients.


METHODS
A total of 124 OCD outpatients were recruited and divided into two groups on the basis of their severity of illness, as assessed through the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (>24). Chi-squared test and t-test for independent samples were performed to compare sociodemographic and clinical variables between the two groups.


RESULTS
The group with increased severity of illness had a younger age, an earlier age at onset and age at first pharmacological treatment (p < .05). In addition, the same group showed a longer DI but a shorter DUI (p < .01). Moreover, significantly higher rates of psychiatric comorbidities (p < .01) were observed in the higher severity group.


CONCLUSIONS
Earlier age, age at onset and age at first pharmacological treatment, longer DI, shorter DUI and higher rate of psychiatric comorbidities were associated with increased severity of OCD. Further studies on larger samples are warranted to confirm the reported results.
a Dipartimento di Neuroscienze , Università degli Studi di Milano , Dipartimento di Salute Mentale , Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico , Milano , Italy.|b Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences , Stanford University , CA , USA.
Bernardo
B
Dell'Osso
a Dipartimento di Neuroscienze , Università degli Studi di Milano , Dipartimento di Salute Mentale , Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico , Milano , Italy.
Beatrice
B
Benatti
c Albert Einstein College of Medicine , Montefiore Medical Center, and Spectrum Neuroscience and Treatment Institute , New York , NY , USA.
Eric
E
Hollander
a Dipartimento di Neuroscienze , Università degli Studi di Milano , Dipartimento di Salute Mentale , Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico , Milano , Italy.
A Carlo
AC
Altamura
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D017668:Age of Onset; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers; D055815:Young Adult
Obsessive compulsive disorder; Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale; severity of illness