Quality of life in adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder

To compare adolescents with and without obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with regard to quality of life and to investigate the association between quality of life and clinical characteristics.

Participants were recruited from an epidemiological study conducted at high schools in the city of Porto Alegre, southern Brazil. The sample comprised 75 adolescents with OCD and 150 without the disorder, aged between 14 and 18 years. Participants were assessed using the following instruments: Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Aged Children - Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL), Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment - Abbreviated Version (WHOQOL-BREF), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Beck Depressive Inventory - II (BDI-II).

The two groups showed significant differences in relation to depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and quality of life (all domains), with a poorer performance among adolescents with OCD when compared to those without the disorder. Stepwise regression analysis revealed a significant association between BDI-II scores and quality of life, in all domains.

Our findings suggest that adolescents with OCD, especially those with depression symptoms, have a poorer quality of life when compared with adolescents without OCD.