Quality of life and disability in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

The aim of this study is to describe the situation of Spanish obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients and compare it to that of the general population and other patient groups. Methods. Thirty-six OCD patients on maintenance treatment were evaluated using the Y-BOCS, SF-36, and DAS-S. Their SF-36 scores were compared to Spanish norms and to those obtained from U.S. OCD patients, schizophrenic outpatients, depressed outpatients, heroin dependents, patients on hemodialysis, and kidney transplant recipients. Results. Sixty-one percent of the patients had severe or extremely severe symptoms. Their quality of life was worse when compared with the Spanish norms in all SF-36 areas, but especially with respect to mental health. In contrast to U.S. OCD patients, social functioning is more impaired in the Spanish OCD patients. OCD patients reported the same quality of life as schizophrenics in the areas of mental health, but better in the areas of physical health, Compared with heroin dependents and depressed patients, their quality of life was worse. On mental health scales, OCD patients scored worse than somatic patients. Conclusions. OCD in the Spanish population was shown to be associated with worse quality of life than for any other patient group (including physical groups), except schizophrenics. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.