Am J Psychiatry 1997; 154:274-276
Copyright © 1997 by American Psychiatric Association
Obsessive-compulsive disorder with and without tics in an epidemiological sample of adolescents
AH Zohar, DL Pauls, G Ratzoni, A Apter, A Dycian, M Binder, R King, JF Leckman, S Kron and DJ Cohen
Scheinfeld Center for Human Genetics in the Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
OBJECTIVE: This study was undertaken to discriminate subtypes of
obsessive-compulsive disorder in adolescents. METHOD: Forty individuals
with obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders were ascertained from an
epidemiological sample of 861 adolescents. Interviews were conducted by
child psychiatrists using semistructured diagnostic interviews, including a
clinician-rated Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. Discriminant
analysis was performed to compare the scores on the Yale- Brown scale of
groups with and without comorbid tics and to compare boys and girls.
RESULTS: Adolescents with tics were more prone to aggressive and sexual
images and obsessions than were adolescents without tics; these differences
could not be wholly attributed to sex differences. CONCLUSIONS: The
subtypes among unreferred adolescents are similar to those of adult
patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder with and without Gilles de la
Tourette syndrome. Subtypes evident in adulthood may be established
relatively early in the natural course of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
