Obsessive-compulsive disorder duration

The aims of a prospective study in 113 consecutively hospitalized young patients (mean age 22 years) were to determine whether the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms differs during treatment with olanzapine or risperidone and to establish whether the duration of neuroleptic treatment is related to the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms (152). At baseline and week 6 assessments, obsessive-compulsive symptoms were found in 32 of 106 evaluable cases and 16 met DSM-IV criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder, but there were no differences in patients taking olanzapine or risperidone. However, the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms was associated with the duration of treatment with olanzapine. 

Although neuroticism is not a disease per se, it predisposes individuals to anxiety disorders (12, 13). Neuroticism is a vulnerability factor for all forms of anxiety (14-16). A system established by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Psychiatric Disorders in the United States, currently in its 4th edition (DSM-IV) text revision (TR) (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), sets the boundary at which a particular level of behavior becomes an anxiety disorder—a level often based on the number and the duration of symptoms. DSM is a categorical system based on the qualitative separation of disease states from the state of well-being. The DSM-IVTR category of anxiety disorders currently includes generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), simple phobia, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), panic disorder, social phobia, and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) as discrete anxiety disorders. The International Classification of Diseases-10 (IC-10) is a similar system, but it is less frequently used in research (17). 

Obsessive-compulsive, tic, and movement disorders in childhood and adolescence are now recognized as relatively common neuropsychiatric disorders, varying in severity, duration of symptom exacerbations, and degree of disability. In some children, the symptoms of these disorders are distinct and easily defined, whereas others display ever-changing combinations of obsessions, compulsions, abnormal motor movements, and tics that may be a mix of transient, chronic, simple, complex, vocal, or motor tics. 

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