Impact of age of onset of illness on clinical phenotype in OCD

Background: This study aims to examine the demographic, clinical and comorbid patterns in a large sample of adult OCD subjects at a specialty OCD clinic in India. Methods: Consecutive patients (n=545) who consulted a specialty OCD Clinic over 5 years at a large psychiatric hospital in India were evaluated with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, and the Clinical Global Impression scale. Results: Earlier age onset of OCD (years) was characterized by male preponderance (19.61 +/- 7.98 vs. 25.19 +/- 1039, U=23453.5, p = < 0.001), positive family history of OCD (19.60 +/- 10.02 vs. 22.27 +/- 9.20, U=16590.5, p < 0.001) and presence of tic disorder (16.28 +/- 8.21 vs. 22.01 +/- 9.38, OR=0.86, p=0.001). In addition, early age of onset was associated with presence of sexual obsessions (18.92 +/- 7.49 vs. 22.88 +/- 9.82, OR=0.96, p=0.02), hoarding (19.61 +/- 9.32 vs. 22.21 +/- 936, OR=0.95, p=0.009), repeating rituals (19.76 +/- 8.37 vs. 23.29 +/- 9.84, OR=0.95, p=0.006) and need to touch compulsions (16.40 +/- 7.19 vs. 22.36 +/- 9.43, OR=0.89, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our findings from a large sample not only confirm that early onset OCD could be a valid and distinct subtype of OCD but also support the cross-cultural similarity of early onset phenotype. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.