Growth rate in adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Am J Psychiatry. 1989 May;146(5):652-5. doi: 10.1176/ajp.146.5.652.

Abstract

In an epidemiological study of 5,596 high school students, the authors identified 20 adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder and compared their physical size to that of adolescents of the same sex with no obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The obsessive-compulsive boys (N = 11) were shorter and weighed less than the other boys (N = 2,479) and were shorter than a subsample of normal boys (N = 33) and boys with other psychiatric diagnoses (N = 16). Regression analysis showed a flatter growth pattern through adolescence for the obsessive-compulsive boys (although within the 95% confidence limits for the other boys), suggesting a subtle neuroendocrine dysfunction in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Body Height
  • Body Weight
  • Female
  • Growth*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mental Disorders / diagnosis
  • Mental Disorders / physiopathology
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / diagnosis
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / physiopathology*
  • Personality Inventory
  • Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
  • Sex Factors