Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and triggering life events
Reviewing literature data on OCD onset finds that results from studies performed on OCD samples do not point toward a higher number or a higher severity of life events prior to OCD onset as compared to non-psychiatric samples drawn from the general population.
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to review literature data on OCD onset in order to investigate whether OCD onset is significantly associated with the frequency and/or the severity of life events occuring in the year before, and whether these are specific events related to the onset of OCD. Results from studies performed on OCD samples do not point toward a higher number or a higher severity of life events prior to OCD onset as compared to non-psychiatric samples drawn from the general population. The difference between OCD patients and comparison subjects emerged when considering specific life events related to OCD onset. Delivery and streptococcal infections have been proven to exert an influence on triggering some forms of OCD. OCD whose onset is related to delivery (postpartum OCD) or to a streptococcal infection (PANDAS) appears to be characterized by peculiar clinical features that allow clinicians to postulate that these forms are distinct clinical entities whithin the OCD spectrum. The better clinical characterization of these forms and the confirmation of the role of these life events in triggering OCD onset would provide researchers with models of pathogenesis that could be useful in identifying more effective therapeutic approaches at least to the treatment of these froms of OCD.