Shavitt Roseli G, Belotto Cristina, Curi Mariana, Hounie Ana G, Rosário-Campos Maria C, Diniz Juliana B, Ferrão Ygor A, Pato Michele T, Miguel Eurípedes C
Department of Psychiatry, University of São Paulo School of Medicine, Caixa Postal 8091, São Paulo, Brazil.
Compr Psychiatry. 2006 Jul-Aug;47(4):276-81. doi: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2005.09.001. Epub 2006 Apr 19.
This study aims to investigate the effect of sociodemographic and clinical features on the short-term response to pharmacological treatment in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We focused especially on investigating factors previously associated with poorer prognosis, such as comorbidity with tic disorders, early onset of symptoms, and sensory phenomena preceding compulsions, which have been described as common in both tic-related and early-onset OCD.
The study involved 41 consecutive adult patients with OCD diagnosed according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) criteria and was conducted at the OCD Spectrum Disorders Clinic of the University of Sao Paulo School of Medicine in São Paulo, Brazil, between January of 2000 and December of 2001. All patients were treated exclusively with oral clomipramine for 14 weeks. Treatment response, measured for Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale score decrease from baseline, was assessed by an investigator blinded as to the variables of interest present.
Linear regression analysis showed that having a partner and sensory phenomena preceding compulsions were associated with better response to clomipramine treatment (P = .04 and P = .002, respectively). Tic comorbidity and early onset of symptoms were not associated with poorer response.
In OCD, having a partner and sensory phenomena preceding compulsions seem to be associated with a favorable response to pharmacological treatment.
