Differentiation of 2 Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Subgroups with Regard to Demographic and Phenomenological...

Classic factor analysis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) dimensions and attempts to identify valid subgroups have not yet produced definitive conclusions.

This study aims to examine possible homogeneous subgrouping of demographic and phenomenological characteristics in 134 treatment-seeking OCD patients. A combination of multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and latent class analysis (LCA) was used.

MCA showed 2 distinct subgroups of OCD patients and LCA confirmed this result by a two-class solution. Both analyses demonstrated (a) a clear subgroup of female patients with washing compulsions, obsessions related to contamination, and late age of onset and (b) a subgroup comprised mostly of male patients with earlier onset of OCD, checking rituals, and doubts or aggressive obsessions. Mental, ordering, hoarding compulsions, religious, or sexual obsessions and images appeared exclusively in this subgroup.

Using 2 different analytic methods, we confirmed at least 2 subgroups in a clinical sample of Greek OCD patients. Future research combining dimensional and latent approaches could facilitate our understanding of the heterogeneous phenotype of OCD.