Quality of life in children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder: base rates, parent–child agreement, and clinical correlates

The presence of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has been linked to decreased quality of life (QoL) among adults, yet little is known about the impact of OCD on QoL in pediatric patients. Sixty-two youth with OCD and their parent(s) were administered the Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale following a clinical interview. Children completed the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory and parents completed the Pediatric Quality of Life Parent Proxy Inventory and Child Behavior Checklist. QoL scores for OCD patients were significantly lower than for healthy controls, but similar to QoL in a general psychiatric sample on the majority of domains. Parent–child agreement on QoL was moderate to strong across age groups. Results indicate that, in youth with OCD, QoL is reduced relative to healthy controls, related to OCD symptom severity per parent-report, and are strongly predicted by the presence of comorbid externalizing and internalizing symptoms.