Towards a post-traumatic subtype of obsessive–compulsive disorder

Abstract

We evaluated whether traumatic events are associated with a distinctive pattern of socio-demographic and clinical features of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). We compared socio-demographic and clinical features of 106 patients developing OCD after post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; termed post-traumatic OCD), 41 patients developing OCD before PTSD (pre-traumatic OCD), and 810 OCD patients without any history of PTSD (non-traumatic OCD) using multinomial logistic regression analysis. A later age at onset of OCD, self-mutilation disorder, history of suicide plans, panic disorder with agoraphobia, and compulsive buying disorder were independently related to post-traumatic OCD. In contrast, earlier age at OCD onset, alcohol-related disorders, contamination-washing symptoms, and self-mutilation disorder were all independently associated with pre-traumatic OCD. In addition, patients with post-traumatic OCD without a previous history of obsessive–compulsive symptoms (OCS) showed lower educational levels, greater rates of contamination-washing symptoms, and more severe miscellaneous symptoms as compared to post-traumatic OCD patients with a history of OCS.