Characteristics of Young Children with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Baseline Features from the POTS Jr. Sample

Pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic and impairing condition that can emerge early in childhood and persist into adulthood. The primary aim of this paper is to examine the characteristics of a large sample of young children with OCD (age range from 5 to 8). The sample will be described with regard to: demographics, OCD symptoms/severity, family history and parental psychopathology, comorbidity, and global and family functioning. The sample includes 127 youth with a primary diagnosis of OCD who participated in a multi-site, randomized control clinical trial of family-based exposure with response prevention. Key findings include moderate to severe OCD symptoms, high rates of impairment, and significant comorbidity, despite the participants' young age. Discussion focuses on how the characteristics of young children compare with older youth and with the few other samples of young children with OCD. Considerations regarding generalizability of the sample and limitations of the study are discussed.