Naturalistic outcome of medication-naive obsessive compulsive disorder treated with serotonin reuptake inhibitors

Objective: The data on the course of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is mostly derived from studying chronic, severely ill patients with varying degree of treatment resistance. We studied the course and outcome of OCD patients who were medication-naive at initial assessment compared to those who were medicated. Material and methods: We analyzed the clinical chart data of all patients with a primary diagnosis of OCD attending a speciality OCD clinic in India during a specified period and compared outcome between medication-naive (n = 75) and medicated (n = 117) patients. Results: The mean time to remission was shorter in the medication-naive [18.99 months (95 % CI: 14.61-23.37)] compared to medicated [33.91 months (95 % CI: 27.55-40.28)] patients. The survival distribution of the two groups was significantly different as per the log-rank test (chi(2) = 5.76, p = 0.02). In the Cox proportional hazards regression, medication-naive status predicted time to remission. Overall, the rate of remission was the same in both groups (57 %). Conclusions: Medication-naive OCD patients seem to remit faster than the previously treated patients. Future prospective naturalistic studies can compare the outcome of medication naive OCD patients treated with medications and CBT.

Automated summary

The study found that medication-naive OCD patients tend to remit faster than those who were previously treated, although the overall remission rate was the same in both groups. Future prospective naturalistic studies can compare the outcomes of medication-naive OCD patients treated with medications and CBT.