Abstract

VASQUEZ, Rafael  and  SALCEDO, Marcela. Five years of treating children and adolescents suffering obsessive compulsive disorder in the Misericordia Hospital in Bogota. rev.fac.med. [online]. 2012, vol.60, n.4, pp.285-291. ISSN 0120-0011.

Background. The present study describes gaps in scientific reviews regarding obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in children and adolescents concerning. questions raised about sociodemographic factors, interference, comorbidity, ongoing monitoring and treatment. Methods. This retrospective, observationaldescriptive study was carried out in the Misericordia Hospital's child psychiatry service's outpatient clinic; it involved reviewing 88 medical records for children aged less than 18 who had been diagnosed as suffering from OCD between January 2006 and December 2010. Results. The sociodemographic factors revealed male predominance, average age being eleven years old. There was 52% medical and 92% psychiatric comorbidity. Greater emotional interference occurred regarding school and social life (28%) and greater difficulty in having/keeping friends (65%). The study revealed that 34% of the subjects had been followedup for longer than one year, improvement in 53% of the cases having been reported by the time of the last consultation. Anxiety was the main symptom reported to have become improved in all patients (69%), 86% of the 88 subjects' records evaluated having shown that they had received pharmacological management. Conclusion. The presence of comorbidity was striking in the course of the disease; it was the cause of medical care having been sought (during its course and prognosis) and patients' emotional interference which was usually not noted by their parents. This would probably explain the delay in diagnosing this disorder.

Keywords : Obsessive compulsive disorder; followup study; monitoring; comorbidity; treatment; demographic indicator.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )