Early onset OCD refers to thesubtype of OCDthat emerges in childhood, typically before age 10 or 11 years old (Rosario-Campos et al., 2001). Some researchers have hypothesized that early-onset OCD constitutes a distinct subtype of the disorder compared to cases with later adolescent or adult-onset (Delorme et al., 1999).
Proposed distinguishing features of early-onset OCD have included heightened symptom severity (Rosario-Campos et al., 2001), differences in gender ratio (Geller et al., 2001), increased rates of comorbid disorders like tic disorders (Diniz et al., 2004), and poorer response to treatments (Rosario-Campos et al., 2001).
However, findings have been mixed regarding whether early-onset OCD can be reliably differentiated as a separate subtype versus later-onset OCD (Nakatani et al., 2011).
More research is still needed to clarify if the age of onset delineates a clinically meaningful OCD subtype with unique characteristics.
Key Points
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Method
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Statistical Analysis
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Insight
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References
Primary reference
Kenyon, K. M., & Eaton, W. O. (2015). Age at child obsessive-compulsive disorder onset and its relation to gender, symptom severity, and family functioning.Archives of Scientific Psychology, 3(1), 150–158.https://doi.org/10.1037/arc0000022
Other references
Delorme, R., Golmard, J. L., Chabane, N., Millet, B., Krebs, M. O., Mouren-Simeoni, M. C., & Leboyer, M. (1999). Admixture analysis of age at onset in obsessive-compulsive disorder.Psychological medicine, 29(1), 237-243.
Diniz, J. B., Rosario-Campos, M. C., Shavitt, R. G., Curi, M., Hounie, A. G., Brotto, S. A., & Miguel, E. C. (2004). Impact of age at onset and duration of illness on the expression of comorbidities in obsessive-compulsive disorder.Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 65, 22-27.
Geller, D. A., Biederman, J., Faraone, S. V., Bellordre, C. A., Kim, G. S., Hagermoser, L., … & Coffey, B. J. (2001). Disentangling chronological age from age of onset in children and adolescents with obsessive—compulsive disorder.The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 4(2), 169-178.
Mancebo, M. C., Garcia, A. M., Pinto, A., Freeman, J. B., Przeworski, A., Stout, R., … & Rasmussen, S. A. (2008). Juvenile-onset OCD: Clinical features in children, adolescents and adults.Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 118(2), 149-159.
Nakatani, E., Krebs, G., Micali, N., Turner, C., Heyman, I., & Mataix-Cols, D. (2011). Children with very early onset obsessive-compulsive disorder: clinical features and treatment outcome.Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52(12), 1261-1268.
Rosario-Campos, M. C., Leckman, J. F., Mercadante, M. T., Shavitt, R. G., da Silva Prado, H., Sada, P., … & Miguel, E. C. (2001). Adults with early-onset obsessive–compulsive disorder.American Journal of Psychiatry, 158(11), 1899-1903.
Scahill, L., Riddle, M. A., McSwiggin-Hardin, M., Ort, S. I., King, R. A., Goodman, W. K., … & Leckman, J. F. (1997). Children’s Yale-Brown obsessive compulsive scale: reliability and validity.Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry,36(6), 844-852.
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Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc
BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education
Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.
Saul McLeod, PhD
BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester
Saul McLeod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.
