Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and substance use disorder share several aspects of phenomenology and may be underpinned by a common mechanism with compulsivity at the core. Despite this overlap, the two disorders show a variable pattern of comorbidity. Here, we review the current evidence for comorbidity across clinical and epidemiological studies, and propose a new heuristic for substance use comorbidity in OCD, based on a hypothetical threshold of OCD severity.
Keywords: Obsessive-compulsive disorder; comorbidity; compulsivity; substance use disorder.
Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.