A follow-up of adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Twenty-six patients seen at a regional adolescent psychiatry unit between 1974 and 1979 with a discharge diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder were followed up after an average of ten years. Of 24 subjects traced, outcome information was obtained from 20. At the point of follow-up, ten patients remained psychiatrically ill, six having persisting obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Poor outcome was associated with a family history of psychiatric illness and lack of response to therapy at initial contact. All patients who were asymptomatic at discharge had remained well.