Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Children and Adolescents

While obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is present under the category of anxiety disorders in DSM-IV TR, it is classified under “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Related Disorders” in DSM 5. There is no different diagnostic system for children and adolescents. OCD has serious adverse effects on family, school, and social lives of children and adolescents, but adolescents with OCD often hide their symptoms and delay seeking help due to several reasons such as inability to recognize their symptoms as disease manifestations, embarrassment, fear of being stigmatized by other people, and believing that what the experience is transient. The age of onset has significance in terms of the disease progression. Therefore it is very important to detect OCD at its early stage, because the majority of the adult patients develop the disease during childhood or adolescence.