Childhood obsessive‐compulsive disorder

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Abstract
Of fascination for many decades, obsessive‐compulsive disorder in adults (OCD) has been subjected to extensive investigation. However, it is also clear that OCD can be experienced by children and adolescents (for convenience we refer to ‘childhood’ OCD). Childhood OCD is a complex clinical syndrome characterized by obsessive ideation, typically accompanied by overt behavioural acts carried out in a ritualistic fashion.1 As obsessive‐compulsive children are notoriously secretive about their aberrant behaviour, it can be sometime before parents and teachers become aware of the actual extent of the child's obsessive‐compulsive behaviour.