Sertraline in Children and Adolescents With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

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Abstract
APPROXIMATELY 1 in 200 young persons has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD),1 which many believe to be the paradigmatic neuropsychiatric illness.2 Individuals with OCD experience obsessions, which are recurrent and persistent thoughts, images, or impulses that are egodystonic, intrusive, and, for the most part, acknowledged as senseless.3 Common obsessions are generally accompanied by distressing negative affects, such as fear, disgust, doubt, or a feeling of incompleteness, and include contamination fears, scrupulosity, fear of harm to self or others, symmetry urges, or hoarding urges. Not surprisingly, persons with OCD typically attempt to ignore, suppress, or neutralize obsessive thoughts and associated feelings by performing compulsions, which are repetitive, purposeful behaviors that are usually performed according to certain rules or in a stereotyped fashion to temporarily neutralize or alleviate obsessions and their accompanying dysphoric affects.4 Compulsions can be observable behaviors (eg, hand washing) or covert mental acts (eg, counting). Among children and adolescents with OCD, few receive a correct diagnosis and even fewer receive appropriate treatment.1

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