[Obsessive-compulsive disorder in the child and adolescent: developmental aspects and therapeutic strategies]

The obsessive-compulsive disorder has only recently been recognized as a specific pathological entity in children, despite the fact that the first descriptions of pediatric manifestations date back to the beginning of this century (P. Janet, 1903) with further reports having been published regularly since that time. The first assessment of the complete epidemiologic, clinical and functional repercussions of the obsessive-compulsive disorder was reported by the Pediatric Psychiatric Group of the NIMH (Pr Judith Rapoport); of their various publications, one is well known in France: The Child who Couldn't Stop Washing (17). Among possible reasons for this delayed recognition are the special conditions for diagnosis and the frequent underestimation of its importance by the family, and sometimes by doctors. This underassessment could be due to confusion between the normal developmental rituals which are frequently seen between the ages of 3 and 5 years, and which do not cause any particular handicaps, and a more severe symptomatology which interferes with normal academic and social adaptation, presenting a substantially worse long-term prognosis. Having recognized the disorder, questions have arisen as to its possible linkage with the form seen in adults. There are numerous convergent argument suggesting a certain long-term persistence of this disorder throughout development and later life: 1) the relative stability of the incidence and prevalence of the disorder; 2) phenomenologic and developmental similarities; 3) most recently, comparable efficacy of treatments for pediatric and adult obsessive-compulsive disorder, whether by the behavioral modification approaches or by pharmacologic treatment, notably with the serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (clomipramine, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)