Can early improvement be an indicator of treatment response in obsessive-compulsive disorder? Implications for early-treatment decision-making.

UNLABELLED: In major depression, early response to treatment has been strongly associated with final outcome. We aimed to investigate the ability of early improvement (4 weeks) to predict treatment response at 12 weeks in DSM-IV-defined obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients treated with serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRI). We conducted an SRI practical trial with 128 subjects. INCLUSION CRITERIA: age range 18-65 years-old, baseline Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) score ≥ 16, and absence of previous adequate pharmacological treatment. Systematic assessments were performed at baseline, 4 and 12 weeks of treatment. Treatment response at 12 weeks was defined as a 35% or greater reduction in baseline Y-BOCS score. Stepwise logistic regression was used to test the relationship between early improvement and treatment response at 12 weeks, taking into account additional potential predictive factors. Different thresholds of early improvement were tested and their predictive power was calculated. Early improvement, defined as a 20% or greater reduction from baseline Y-BOCS score at 4 weeks, predicted response at 12 weeks with 75.6% sensitivity and 61.9% specificity. According to a logistic regression including demographic and clinical features as explaining variables, early improvement was the best predictor of treatment response (OR = 1.05, p < 0.0001). Only 19.8% of patients who did not improve at 4 weeks were responders after 12 weeks. In contrast, 55.3% of the individuals who showed early improvement were responders at 12 weeks (Pearson Chi-Square = 17.06, p < 0.001). Early improvement predicted OCD treatment response with relatively good sensitivity and specificity, such that its role in early decision-making warrants further investigation in wider samples. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier NCT00680602.

Body dysmorphic disorder in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: prevalence and clinical correlates.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence, sociodemographic aspects, and clinical features of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have been previously addressed in primarily relatively small samples. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional demographic and clinical assessment of 901 OCD patients participating in the Brazilian Research Consortium on Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders. We used the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders; Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale; Dimensional Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DY-BOCS); Brown Assessment of Beliefs Scale; Clinical Global Impression Scale; and Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. RESULTS: The lifetime prevalence of BDD was 12.1%. The individuals with comorbid BDD (OCD-BDD; n = 109) were younger than were those without it. In addition, the proportions of single and unemployed patients were greater in the OCD-BDD group. This group of patients also showed higher rates of suicidal behaviors; mood, anxiety, and eating disorders; hypochondriasis; skin picking; Tourette syndrome; and symptoms of the sexual/religious, aggressive, and miscellaneous dimensions. Furthermore, OCD-BDD patients had an earlier onset of OC symptoms; greater severity of OCD, depression, and anxiety symptoms; and poorer insight. After logistic regression, the following features were associated with OCD-BDD: current age; age at OCD onset; severity of the miscellaneous DY-BOCS dimension; severity of depressive symptoms; and comorbid social phobia, dysthymia, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and skin picking. CONCLUSIONS: Because OCD patients might not inform clinicians about concerns regarding their appearance, it is essential to investigate symptoms of BDD, especially in young patients with early onset and comorbid social anxiety, chronic depression, skin picking, or eating disorders.