Features of the clinic and diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents

Abstract

The purpose of the review is to identify the features of the course and diagnosis of obsessive — compulsive disorder (OCD) in children and adolescents based on literature data. OCD is a mental illness with a chronic, potentially disabling course. The main symptoms are obsessions (obsessive thoughts, ideas or fears), which contribute to the development of compulsions (forced, often illogical actions or rituals that help reduce anxiety and help the patient calm down). OCD in children and adolescents has a number of differences from the course of the disease in adults. In young children, pathology is rarely diagnosed due to the physiological, neurological and psychoemotional characteristics of a child's growing body on the one hand, and the lack of effective diagnostic tests and alertness in the patient's environment on the other. Adolescent OCD is characterized by a stage-by-stage process, a compulsive-obsessive variant of the course with rapid development of depression and complications up to a suicidal outcome is more often detected.