A "transatlantic" follow-up study of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
J Affect Disord
; 341: 313-318, 2023 11 15.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37661060
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Obsessive-compulsive symptom fluctuations may be contingent on the number of stressful pandemic-related events and the resilience characterizing different cultures. We investigated the influence of the pandemic on symptom changes in a sample of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients from Brazil and Italy, two countries that were highly affected by the outbreak.METHODS:
Ninety-one OCD outpatients were evaluated at baseline and about one year later. Thirty of them were assessed in Brazil and 61 in Italy. Socio-demographic variables, symptoms' severity and the number of stressful pandemic-related events were collected. Comparisons between countries' samples were performed, and a linear regression examined whether the country of origin, demographic features and the number of stressful events were able to predict the symptoms' severity at the follow-up.RESULTS:
Brazilian patients experienced more stressful pandemic-related events than Italian patients (p = 0.018). However, along with higher age (p < 0.01) and increased severity of symptoms at baseline (p < 0.01), lower number of events predicted increased symptoms' severity after one year (p < 0.01). Country of origin was not a significant predictor of severity.LIMITATIONS:
Small number of subjects; lack of information regarding duration of illness; and potential sample differences between countries.CONCLUSIONS:
During the pandemic, the occurrence of more stressful pandemic-related events was associated with decreased severity of patients' OCD symptoms. Nevertheless, older patients and those with more severe symptoms seemed prone to exhibit increased OCD severity at follow-up.Palavras-chave
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
COVID-19
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2023
Tipo de documento:
Article