OCD Linked to Higher Risk of Schizophrenia

A prior diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) was associated with a higher risk of developing schizophrenia, according to a recent study.

For the study, researchers used incidence rate ratios (IRR) to measure the relative risk of 3 million participants born between 1955 and 2006, with a follow-up period between 1995 and 2012.
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A total of 16,231 participants manifested schizophrenia with 447 (2.75%) were previously diagnosed with OCD. Furthermore, 30,556 participants developed a schizophrenia spectrum disorder; 700 (2.29%) of those patients already had an OCD diagnosis.

Researchers concluded that a previous diagnosis of OCD was associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia (IRR=6.90) and schizophrenia spectrum disorder (IRR=5.77).

The children with parents suffering from OCD were at a higher risk for developing schizophrenia (IRR=4.31) and schizophrenia spectrum disorder (IRR=3.10).

“Despite the fact that our results indicate putative overlapping etiological factors of OCD and schizophrenia or schizophrenia spectrum disorders, they do not necessarily suggest that these disorders should be aggregated into one global diagnosis,” said the authors.

“Further research is needed to disentangle which genetic and environmental risk factors are truly common to OCD,” they said.

The complete study is published in the August issue of JAMA Psychiatry.

-Michelle Canales

References:

Meier SM, Petersen L, Pedersen MG, et al. Obsessive-compulsive disorder as a risk factor for schizophrenia. JAMA Psychiatry. 2014 September [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.1011.

JAMA Networks. Obsessive compulsive disorder diagnosis linked to higher rates of schizophrenia. September 3, 2014. http://media.jamanetwork.com/news-item/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-diagnosis-linked-to-higher-rates-of-schizophrenia. Accessed September 3, 2014.