Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Aarhus University Hospital, Psychiatry, Aarhus, Denmark.
BMC Psychiatry. 2020 Oct 20;20(1):511. doi: 10.1186/s12888-020-02905-5.
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a distressing psychiatric disorder. Traumas may trigger or aggravate OCD symptoms. COVID-19 pandemic has coursed a global crisis and has been associated with onset of psychiatric disorders in adults. Little is known about children/adolescents with OCD. The present study aimed to examine how children/adolescents with OCD react towards COVID-19 crisis.
A questionnaire was distributed to two separate groups of children/adolescents. One group was a clinical group newly diagnosed at a specialized OCD clinic. All the children/adolescents had a current close contact to a therapist or doctor. The other group was a survey group identified through the Danish OCD Association. Most of these children/adolescents were diagnosed years ago, and their primary treatment was completed. For the clinical group, data from patient files was available.
In both groups, but most pronounced in the survey group, participants experienced a worsening of their OCD, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. The aggravation of OCD correlated with the worsening of anxiety, depressive symptoms, and the extent of avoidance behavior. For both groups, OCD aggressive symptoms predicted a significant worsening. Poor baseline insight showed a trend to predict a symptom worsening. The worsening was most pronounced in children with early age of onset and a family history of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies examining the effect of COVID-19 in children/adolescents with OCD. The effect was examined in two separate populations strengthening the findings. The study points towards an influence of the OCD phenotype, baseline insight suggesting a continued vulnerability, and a family history of psychiatric disorders.
The study is approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency (1-16-02-147-20) registered 1st of April 2020. Oral and written information was given to parents and patients and written consent from patients over 15 years and parents were received.
强迫症（OCD）是一种令人痛苦的精神疾病。创伤可能会引发或加重 OCD 症状。COVID-19 大流行引发了全球性危机，并与成年人精神障碍的发病有关。对于患有 OCD 的儿童和青少年知之甚少。本研究旨在探讨 OCD 患儿对 COVID-19 危机的反应。
向两组儿童和青少年分发问卷。一组是在专门的 OCD 诊所新诊断的临床组。所有儿童和青少年都与治疗师或医生有密切接触。另一组是通过丹麦 OCD 协会确定的调查组。这些儿童和青少年大多是多年前被诊断出来的，他们的主要治疗已经完成。对于临床组，可以从患者档案中获取数据。
两组患者 OCD、焦虑和抑郁症状均加重，但调查组更为明显。OCD 加重与焦虑、抑郁症状加重和回避行为程度呈正相关。对于两组患者，OCD 攻击症状均预示着明显的恶化。较差的基线洞察力显示出与症状恶化相关的趋势。起病年龄较早和有注意力缺陷多动障碍家族史的儿童恶化最为明显。
据我们所知，这是首批研究 OCD 患儿受 COVID-19 影响的研究之一。该研究通过两组独立人群进行检验，增强了研究结果的可信度。该研究表明 OCD 表型存在影响，基线洞察力提示存在持续的脆弱性，以及精神障碍家族史。
该研究获得丹麦数据保护局批准（1-16-02-147-20），于 2020 年 4 月 1 日注册。向家长和患者提供口头和书面信息，并在患者年满 15 岁及以上和家长收到书面同意后进行。
