Quality of life and symptom dimensions of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of different dimensions of obsessive-compulsive symptoms, of co-morbid anxious depressive symptoms, and of sociodemographic characteristics on the quality of life of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We evaluated 53 patients with OCD and 53 age- and gender-matched individuals from the community with a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnosis of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth Edition, (DSM-IV), the Short-Form Health Survey-36 (SF-36), the Saving Inventory-Revised, the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised, the Beck Depression Inventory and the Beck Anxiety Inventory. A series of stepwise linear regression analyses were performed, having the SF-36 dimensions as the dependent variables and the sociodemographic and clinical features as the independent ones. Patients with OCD displayed significantly lower levels of quality of life in all dimensions measured by the SF-36, except bodily pain. A model that included depressive symptoms, hoarding and employment status predicted 62% of the variance of the social functioning dimension of the quality of life of patients with OCD. Washing symptoms explained 31% of the variance of limitation due to physical health problems. Further, a series of models that included depressive, but not obsessive-compulsive symptoms, explained the remaining SF-36 dimensions. The severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms seems, therefore, to be powerful determinants of the level of quality of life in patients with OCD.

The Brazilian Portuguese version of the Saving Inventory-Revised: internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and validity of a questionnaire to assess hoarding.

Pathological hoarding results in clutter that precludes normal activities and creates distress or dysfunction. It may lead to an inability to complete household functions, health problems, social withdrawal, and even death. The aim of this study was to describe the validation of the Brazilian version of the hoarding assessment instrument, the Saving Inventory-Revised. Sixty-five patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and 70 individuals from the community were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnosis of DSM-IV (clinical sample), the Saving Inventory-Revised, the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Beck Anxiety Inventory. The Brazilian version of the Saving Inventory-Revised exhibited high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .94 for OCD and .84 for controls), high to moderate test-retest reliability and, using the hoarding dimension of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised as a reference point, high to moderate convergent validity. The Saving Inventory-Revised total scores also correlated significantly with comorbid anxiety and depressive symptoms.