In Sweden, a study has uncovered something worrisome about people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): they might face a higher risk of dying, both from natural and unnatural causes, compared to others who don’t have this condition.
This study, shared in The BMJ, a medical journal, sheds new light on the challenges faced by individuals with OCD.
First, let’s understand what OCD is. It’s a mental health issue that affects about 2% of people. Those with OCD often have unwanted and repeated thoughts, images, or urges that cause a lot of worry or discomfort.
They try to get rid of these thoughts through certain actions or rituals, which they feel compelled to do over and over. It’s not just a short-term problem; for many, it’s something they deal with for a long time.
OCD can make life hard in many ways. People with this disorder often struggle in school or at work. They might turn to alcohol or drugs, and they’re at a higher risk of dying than others.
While previous research mostly looked at deaths from causes like suicide, this study from Sweden wanted to know more about both natural and unnatural causes of death among people with OCD.
The researchers in Sweden did a big job. They gathered information on over 61,000 people with OCD and compared them with more than 600,000 individuals without OCD.
They also looked at about 82,000 siblings, some with OCD and some without. They kept track of these groups from 1973 to 2020, about 8 years on average for each person.
The findings were concerning. People with OCD had a higher death rate compared to those without OCD.
After considering factors like age, sex, where they lived, whether they were immigrants, their education, and family income, the risk of death for people with OCD was 82% higher for any cause. The risk was even higher for deaths from unnatural causes, like three times more likely.
Digging deeper, the study found that for natural causes of death, people with OCD were more likely to die from several types of diseases.
These included diseases of the respiratory system, mental and behavioral disorders, the genitourinary system, endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases, circulatory system, nervous system, and digestive system.
For unnatural causes, the biggest risks were suicide (almost five times higher) and accidents (92% higher).
Interestingly, the risk of death was similar for both men and women with OCD, but women with OCD were more likely to die from unnatural causes than men with OCD. However, people with OCD had a slightly lower risk of dying from tumors.
It’s important to note that this study just observed patterns and didn’t prove that OCD causes these increased risks.
Also, the data was only from Sweden, so it’s not clear if these findings would be the same in other countries with different healthcare systems. The researchers used data from specialist care, so it might not include all cases of OCD.
Even with these limitations, this study is valuable because it used high-quality, national data. The researchers believe their findings are reliable, even after they adjusted for mental health conditions and family backgrounds.
In conclusion, the study highlights a critical issue: people with OCD are facing significant risks of dying, not just from diseases but also from accidents and suicides.
This calls for better monitoring, prevention, and early help for those with OCD to reduce these risks. It’s a call to action for everyone involved in healthcare and mental health services to pay more attention to the hidden risks faced by people with OCD.
The research findings can be found in The BMJ.
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