Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of Adolescents in Hawaii With Obsessive-compulsive Disorder

Abstract

The characteristics of OCD in this sample suggest the need to consider the possibility of a streptococcal origin and the need for further studies to clarify the genetic and environmental risk factors for OCD in Hawaiian and other Polynesian youth.

The analytical epidemiology of obsessive–compulsive disorder: Risk factors and correlates

“…In the Italian study by , 17-year-olds with OCD did not differ from agematched subjects without obsessive-compulsive symptoms and other adolescents in terms of job status (student, employed, and unemployed). In a Hawaiian sample, Guerrero et al (2003) did not find a significant relationship between the presence of OCD in adolescents and the main wage earner's employment status, a finding that was also reported in Poland by Brynska and Wolanczyk (2005). In sum, no specific relationship between employment and OCD were found in younger samples.…”

“…For examples, although Karno et al (1988) reported that the ECA prevalence of OCD among college graduates was higher than that among those with some college education, the pattern was reversed for high school education, such that the prevalence of OCD among people who had graduated from high school was lower than that of subjects who had completed some high school. Similarly, Guerrero et al (2003) found that the lower the main wage earners' education, the higher the rate of OCD among children and adolescents in Hawaii. Finally, Crino et al (2005) were unable to find educational differences between people with and without OCD in an Australian sample.…”

“…Similarly, Nelson and Rice (1997) suggested that, when alcohol abuse/dependence and OCD coexist in the initial assessment, the temporal stability of the diagnosis of OCD is higher. The link between substance abuse disorders and OCD was further reinforced in the study by Guerrero et al (2003), who found that illicit substance use (such as marijuana) and the use of alcohol were associated with OCD in an adolescent Hawaiian sample.…”

“…The issue of race in OCD remains an understudied topic and was examined in only a few epidemiological studies (Karno et In Hawaii, Guerrero et al (2003) found that Hawaiians and Samoans were the only ethnic groups with odds ratios greater than 1.0 for being diagnosed with OCD, with Hawaiians having a 2-fold probability compared to non-Hawaiians. Some data collected from internet-generated samples (Williams et al, 2005), university students (Thomas et al, 2000), and treatment-seeking populations (Fabrega et al, 1988) have also suggested that individuals from ethnic minorities (i.e.…”

Sex Differences in Genetic and Environmental Influences on Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms in South Korean Adolescent and Young Adult Twins

“…The failure to detect shared environmental influences is likely due to a lack of statistical power associated with insufficient sample size. Although the results of studies were not consistent, several investigators found that low family socioeconomic status (SES) was a risk factor for the development of OCD and that children with OCD came from larger families than did normal controls (e.g., Guerrero et al, 2003;Heyman et al, 2001). Given the previous finding that streptococcal infection can trigger OCD (Kiessling et al, 1993), the causal shared environmental factor for OCD might be streptococcal infection common in low SES families rather than low SES itself.…”