Religious attitudes in adolescents with Obsessive Compulsive Symptoms OCS and disorder OCD

Mental health professionals observed booming in prevalence of obsessive compulsive symptoms among children and adolescents. Our epidemiological study aims at estimating the prevalence of obsessive symptoms and obsessive compulsive disorder among secondary school students and, as a secondary research objective, to assess religious attitudes among those patients.

The study is cross sectional conducted on 1299 secondary school students, adequate sample size estimated on a prevalence of 2% for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in literature. Equal samples were recruited from the 3 educative zones in Alexandria Governorate. Obsessive compulsive symptoms were assessed by the Lyeton obsessive inventory child LOI-CV, the Arabic version that has been validated and tested for reliability in Egyptian culture. Those scoring 35 or above were subjected to the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for children MINI-KID Arabic. Patients with OCD had their diagnosis confirmed by psychiatric interview to assure fulfillment of criteria of OCD according to DSM IV -TR criteria. A standardized self reporting questionnaire was designed to assess religious attitudes.

Among the studied sample (n=1299), 201 students were scored > 35 on LOI-CV i.e. 15.5% of the total sample have OCS The prevalence of OCD among studied sample was 2.2% as 29 students from the OCS students were fulfilling diagnostic criteria for OCD according to DSM-IV TR. Religious practicing attitudes were 93.1% and 79.6% in adolescents with obsessive compulsive disorder OCD and obsessive compulsive symptoms OCS respectively with no difference (X2=0.07).

There's a high prevalence rate of obsessive symptoms among adolescents, such finding highlights the necessity and need of public awareness and screening of adolescents for early detection and management. Religious attitude didn't show significant difference among adolescents showing only obsessive compulsive disorder or those showing only obsessive compulsive symptoms.