OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE CHARACTERISTICS - FROM SYMPTOMS TO SYNDROME

Objective: To assess the distribution and severity of obsessions and c ompulsions in a nonclinical adolescent population. Method: During prei nduction military screening, 861 sixteen-year-old Israelis completed a questionnaire regarding the lifetime presence of eight obsessive-comp ulsive (OC) symptoms and three severity measures. The presence or abse nce of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or subclinical OCD was asce rtained by an independent interview. Results: Although only 8.0% and 6 .3% of respondents reported disturbing and intrusive thoughts, respect ively, 27% to 72% of subjects endorsed the six remaining OCD symptoms. Twenty percent of subjects regarded the symptoms they endorsed as sen seless and 3.5% found them disturbing; 8% reported spending more than an hour daily on symptoms. OCD and subclinical OCD cases differed sign ificantly from non-OCD cases, but not from each other, in distress and mean number of symptoms. Although the distribution of nine of the ite ms differed for noncases, compared with OCD and subclinical OCD cases, the distributions for all items overlapped markedly across the three groups. Conclusions: OC phenomena appear to be on a continuum with few symptoms and minimal severity at one end and many symptoms and severe impairment on the other. Defining optimal cutoff points for distingui shing between psychiatric disorder and OC phenomena that are common in the general population remains an open question.