Impact of obsessive-compulsive disorder comorbidity on the sociodemographic and clinical features of patients with bipolar disorder
published online 31 August 2009.
Abstract
Background
In this study, our aim is to determine the prevalence rates of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) comorbidity and to assess the impact of OCD comorbidity on the sociodemographic and clinical features of patients with bipolar disorder (BD).
Methods
Using the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale Symptom Checklist and Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition-IV/Clinical Version on bipolar patients, 2 groups, BD with OCD comorbidity (BD-OCD) and BD without OCD comorbidity, were formed. These groups were compared for sociodemographic and clinical variables.
Results
Of 214 patients with BD, 21.9% of them had obsession and/or compulsion symptoms and 16.3% had symptoms at the OCD level. Although there was no statistically significant difference between the frequency of comorbid OCD in BD-I (22/185, 11.9%) and BD-II (3/13, 23.1%) patients, but OCD was found to be significantly high in BD not otherwise specified (10/16, %62.5) patients than BD-I (P < .001) and BD-II (P = .03). Six patients (17.1%) of the BD-OCD group had chronic course (the presence of at least 1 mood disorder episode with a duration of longer than 2 years), whereas the BD without OCD group had none, which was statistically significant. There were no statistically significant differences between BD-OCD and BD without OCD groups in terms of age, sex, education, marital status, polarity, age of BD onset, presence of psychotic symptoms, presence of rapid cycling, history of suicide attempts, first episode type, and predominant episode type.
Limitations
Main limitation of our study was the assessment of some variables based on retrospective recall.
Conclusions
Our study confirms the high comorbidity rates for OCD in BD patients. Future studies that examine the relationship between OCD and BD using a longitudinal design may be helpful in improving our understanding of the mechanism of this association.
aDepartment of Psychiatry, Batı Bahat Hospital, İstanbul, Turkey
bDepartment of Psychiatry, İstanbul Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul University, İstanbul, Turkey
cDepartment of Psychiatry, Ünye State Hospital, Ordu, Turkey
dDepartment of Psychiatry, Erenköy State Hospital, İstanbul, Turkey
ABSTRACT