[Obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents: a literature review. Part II].
This paper presents opinions about obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents. Washing, checking, repeating, touching, counting and scrupulosity are the most commonly seen rituals. Almost all patients reported a change in their principal symptom over time. There appear to be no significant intercultural differences in phenomenology. Childhood OCD seems to be associated with depression, eating disorders and anxiety disorders (in several cases the secondary diagnosis was mild), whereas there seems to be no convincing relation between OCD and schizophrenia. Follow-up studies of the course of OCD with a childhood onset are still very few in number. OCD is disabling disorder with bad prognosis for one third to one half of the patients. The behavior therapy is an effective treatment for childhood-onset OCD, while numerous systematic investigations have demonstrated the efficacy of clomipramine treatment. Fluoxetine and other drugs which inhibit serotonin reuptake also may be helpful.