G. Maina, F. Forner, U. Albert, G. Rosso, E. Aguglia, F. Bogetto - Vol. 8, September 2002, Issue 3
Testo Immagini Bibliografia Summary Indice
Il Disturbo Ossessivo-Compulsivo di Personalità
(DOCP):
prevalenza nei pazienti con disturbi d’ansia e nei soggetti sani
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD):
prevalence in patients with anxiety disorders and in healthy subjects
Objectives
The relationship between Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) has not yet been fully clarified; two major hypotheses have been proposed: the first states their psychopathological continuity while the second one looks at these disorders as distinct phenomena. This study was carried out to evaluate: 1) OCPD prevalence in OCD as compared to OCPD prevalence in Panic Disorder (PD); 2) OCPD prevalence in a sample of healthy subjects, because no study to date has been performed using DSM-IV-TR criteria; 3) gender differences in OCPD prevalence in all three groups.
Method
94 patients with a principal diagnosis of OCD (DSM-IV-TR; Y-BOCS at least 16) and 70 subjects with PD (DSM-IV-TR; SCRAS at least 35) have been recruited for this study; subjects with a lifetime diagnosis of major depressive disorder were excluded (HAM-D higher than 16). A community sample of 196 subjects, without lifetime psychiatric disorders was also evaluated. OCPD prevalence rates were assessed by means of the SCID-II; statistical analyses have been performed with the Chi-Square test.
Results
OCPD prevalence rate in the community sample (3.1%) was significantly different from OCPD prevalence in OCD (18.1%), and PD (15.7%), both in the total sample and when subdividing according to gender. No significant differences emerged between OCD and PD as related to prevalence of OCPD, both considering the total sample and the male and female sub-samples. Finally, no significant gender differences were detected in all three samples.
Conclusion
OCPD prevalence rates found in our study in the general population, in the OCD and PD samples are in agreement with data found in literature. The failure to detect significant differences in prevalence between the OCD and PD samples support the OCPD-OCD theory which postulates the occurrence of comorbidity and does not support a causal link between the two disorders.