Factors Associated With Quality of Life in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Abstract

Objective: Since obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is an illness that considerably influences the family, academic, occupational and social functioning of patients, the relationship between OCD and QOL has been acquiring more importance. The present study was designed to investigate which aspects of quality of life (QOL) are most affected in OCD and to explore the predictors of decreased QOL in OCD. Methods: Seventy three patients with OCD and 69 healthy control subjects were compared in terms of their quality of life scores by means of WHOQOL-BRIEF. The relationship between QOL and probable clinical variables were explored by means of multivariate regression analyses. Results: Psychological health and social relationship scores of OCD patients were significantly lower than healthy subjects. Multivariate regression analyses revealed that the severity of depressive symptoms was the best predictor of both psychical health, and psychological health. The presence of comorbid personality disorder was the second significant factor to predict psychological health. While the severity of compulsions was the sole associated factor with psychological health, in second model, severity of depression as an associated variable was added to equation. Only the duration of illness was associated with environment scores. In the bivariate correlational analyses, while the severity of obsessions and depressive symptoms were significantly associated with psychological health, there is no association between psychological health and compulsion severity. Discussion: Since the subjective perception of QOL is considerably affected by depression severity, a quality of life assessment instrument that is specific for OCD should be developed.