Citation

Blanco-Vieira T, Santos M, Ferrão YA, Torres AR, Miguel EC, Bloch MH, Leckman JF, do Rosário MC. Depress. Anxiety 2019; 36(6): 533-542.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/da.22898

PMID

30990937

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Recent findings suggest an association between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Thus, we evaluated the clinical associated features of ADHD in a large sample of adult OCD patients.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study including 955 adult patients with OCD from the Brazilian Research Consortium of Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders (C-TOC). Clinical characteristics in adult OCD patients with and without comorbid ADHD were compared using Fisher's exact test, t-tests or Mann-Whitney tests. Bivariate analyses were followed by logistic regression analysis to identify clinical characteristics independently associated with ADHD comorbidity.
RESULTS: The lifetime prevalence of ADHD in adult OCD patients was 13.7%. The current results indicate that OCD + ADHD patients were more severe, had an earlier onset of the obsessive-compulsive symptoms, a higher history of rheumatic fever, with higher frequencies of sensory phenomena and comorbidity with Tourette syndrome. They also had an increased risk for academic impairment and suicide attempts.
CONCLUSION: Adult OCD patients with ADHD present some specific clinical features and may represent a special subgroup of adult OCD. Future studies should focus on the development of interventions more tailored to the phenotype of this subgroup of patients.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Cross-Sectional Studies; Adult; Aged; Female; Male; Middle Aged; Adolescent; Brazil; Young Adult; Aged, 80 and over; Comorbidity; Prevalence; Suicide, Attempted; comorbidity; Phenotype; obsessive-compulsive disorder; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity; attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity; Correlation of Data; Academic Success; Tourette Syndrome