Obsessive-compulsive symptoms in children and adolescents. A phenomenological analysis of 61 Danish cases

The charts of 61 children and adolescents admitted to the Psychiatric Hospital for Children in Aarhus, Denmark, in the period 1970-1986 fulfilling the DSM-III criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder were reviewed for obsessive/compulsive symptoms. The symptoms were divided into form and content. The most common form of compulsion was rituals seen in 39 of the patients, and the most common compulsive content was washing. The most frequent obsessive content was thoughts about dirt and contamination followed by concern about death, illness and harm. The phenomenological feature of boys and girls was very similar, and only a few significant differences between boys and girls were found. One quarter of the boys and 12.5% of the girls had only obsession, whereas 27.0% of the boys and 37.5% of the girls had only compulsion and no obsession. The number of obsessive/compulsive symptoms was not found to correlate with the time spent each day on the symptom. It is concluded that there do not seem to be any intercultural differences between Denmark, India, and Japan as to the content of obsessional thoughts and compulsive behaviour in children and adolescents.