RESUMO
Our objective in this study was to compare the demographics and clinical characteristics of patients with episodic and chronic obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We recruited 128 outpatients with a primary diagnosis of OCD according to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. The episodic (n=24) and chronic (n=104) OCD patient groups were compared with respect to demographic variables and scores from various psychiatric rating scales. The severity of compulsions was found to be significantly lower in the episodic OCD group than in the chronic OCD group. When the frequency of Axis I disorders was assessed in the two groups, bipolar disorder was found to have a significantly higher prevalence rate in the episodic OCD group than that in the chronic OCD group. The results of our study point to the possibility of an association between a subgroup of OCD with an episodic course and bipolar disorder. The evidence of such a relationship, which needs to be confirmed in a larger sample, might expand the scope of the clinical assessment and therapy of this subgroup of OCD.
Assuntos
Transtorno Obsessivo-Compulsivo/diagnóstico , Adulto , Idade de Início , Assistência Ambulatorial , Transtorno Bipolar/diagnóstico , Transtorno Bipolar/epidemiologia , Doença Crônica , Comorbidade , Diagnóstico Diferencial , Avaliação da Deficiência , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Transtorno Obsessivo-Compulsivo/epidemiologia , Transtorno Obsessivo-Compulsivo/psicologia , Prevalência , Escalas de Graduação Psiquiátrica/estatística & dados numéricos , Índice de Gravidade de DoençaRESUMO
We compared early-onset and late-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients in terms of demographic and clinical features. One hundred sixteen outpatients whose primary diagnosis was OCD according to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria were recruited. Early-onset (n=50) and late-onset (n=66) OCD groups were compared with respect to demographic variables and scores obtained on various scales. A male gender predominance was found in early-onset OCD group. Symmetry/exactness obsessions, religious obsessions, hoarding/saving obsessions, and hoarding/collecting compulsions also were significantly more frequent in the early-onset group than in the late-onset group. The results may suggest a phenotypic difference between the two groups. Further studies are needed to investigate the differences between early-onset and late-onset OCD groups to examine the hypothesis that early-onset OCD is a distinct subtype of the disorder.
