The COVID-19 pandemic and obsessive–compulsive disorder in young people: Systematic review

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the world since the first cases were reported in China in January 2020. The secondary mental health impacts of the pandemic are thought to be significant. Obsessive–compulsive disorder is a condition defined by recurrent obsessions and compulsions. It has been hypothesised that the focus on hygiene and contamination during the pandemic could exacerbate obsessive–compulsive symptoms in young people. Method A systematic literature review was conducted. Papers were sought looking at the effect of the pandemic on obsessive–compulsive disorder in young people. Results Six published cross-sectional and longitudinal studies were identified, of which four studies investigated clinic samples with a diagnosis of obsessive–compulsive disorder and two looked at community adolescent populations. Five out of the six studies found that obsessive–compulsive symptoms were exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion The COVID-19 pandemic appears to be associated with a worsening of obsessive–compulsive symptoms in young people. Being in treatment seems to have a protective effect. Maintaining mental health services during a pandemic is vital. It is important to be aware of the implications of pandemic on obsessive–compulsive symptoms in young people in order to allow them to access appropriate treatments. More research is needed in this area.

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the “COVID Stress Scales” in Greek

“…Finally, we found that COVID-19 compulsive checking is one of the factors that create stress in people. Extreme focus on hygiene measures and contamination during the COVID-19 pandemic could exacerbate obsessive-compulsive symptoms (Cunning & Hodes, 2022). The COVID-19 pandemic appears to be related with a worsening of obsessive-compulsive symptoms especially during the early stages of the pandemic (Guzick et al, 2021; Maye et al, 2022).…”

Global burden of mental health problems among children and adolescents during COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic umbrella review

“…A total of 24 citations met our preliminary criteria and were retained for full-text review. After full-text evaluation, 17 systematic reviews [29,34,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47], including 6 meta-analytic reviews [34,42,43,46,49,51] met all criteria of this umbrella review and were selected for further analysis (see Table 2).…”

“…The methodological quality of the reviews was assessed using the JBI critical appraisal checklist (See Supplementary Material). Most of the reviews (n = 13) included in this umbrella review were of high quality [29,34,51,53,54,[40][41][42][43][44][48][49][50], whereas the remaining (n = 4) reviews had medium quality [45][46][47]52]. None of the reviews were identified to have low methodological quality as per the JBI checklist.…”

A Case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Triggered by the Pandemic

“…The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020. As of January 2021, there have been over 93,000,000 cases of coronavirus reported to the WHO, including over 2,000,000 deaths [1,2].…”

“…Anecdotally, some authors have reported increased numbers of patients with obsessivecompulsive disorder (OCD) or personality difficulties seeking psychiatric help in recent months. Predictably, their conditions may be exacerbated by the fear of contagion and of loved ones falling ill or feelings of emptiness when quarantined by others [2,5,[10][11][12].…”