clinical profile and comorbidity of obsessive-compulsive disorder among children and adolescents: a cross-sectional observation in bangladesh

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common disorder characterised by persistent and unwanted intrusive thoughts, images, and urges and repetitive behaviours or mental acts and can cause pervasive impairments. In Bangladesh, the prevalence of OCD among children is 2% which is higher than in previous reporting. This study was aimed at looking into the type, frequency, and severity of symptoms of OCD and comorbidity among children and adolescents. A consecutive 60 OCD cases from a child mental health service with age range of 5–18 years were recruited and divided into below and above 12 years of age group. The assessment was carried out using standardized Bangla version of Development and Wellbeing Assessment and Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale was administered. Of the obsession, contamination was the highest followed by doubt, and of the compulsion, washing/cleaning was the highest followed by checking, repeating, and ordering rituals. More than half of the subjects had severe OCD and comorbidity was present in 58% subjects. Specific phobia, social phobia, major depressive disorder, and tic disorder were more prevalent. These symptoms and comorbidity profile can serve the baseline data for a country like Bangladesh and further large scale study would better generalize the study results.