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Admixture analysis of age at onset in obsessive–compulsive disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 January 2005

RICHARD DELORME ,
JEAN-LOUIS GOLMARD ,
NADIA CHABANE ,
BRUNO MILLET ,
MARIE-ODILE KREBS ,
MARIE CHRISTINE MOUREN-SIMEONI  and
MARION LEBOYER
RICHARD DELORME
Affiliation:
INSERM U513, Faculté de Médecine, Créteil, France Service de Psychopathologie de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent, Hôpital Robert Debré, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
JEAN-LOUIS GOLMARD
Affiliation:
INSERM U436, Département de Biostatistiques et Informatique, CHU Pitié-Salpétrière, Université Paris VI, Paris, France
NADIA CHABANE
Affiliation:
INSERM U513, Faculté de Médecine, Créteil, France Service de Psychopathologie de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent, Hôpital Robert Debré, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
BRUNO MILLET
Affiliation:
INSERM E0117, Hôpital Sainte-Anne, Paris, France
MARIE-ODILE KREBS
Affiliation:
INSERM E0117, Hôpital Sainte-Anne, Paris, France
MARIE CHRISTINE MOUREN-SIMEONI
Affiliation:
Service de Psychopathologie de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent, Hôpital Robert Debré, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
MARION LEBOYER
Affiliation:
INSERM U513, Faculté de Médecine, Créteil, France Service de Psychiatrie, Hôpital Henri Mondor et Albert Chenevier, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Créteil, France
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Abstract

Background. Age at onset (AAO) has been useful to explore the clinical, neurobiological and genetic heterogeneity of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). However, none of the various thresholds of AAO used in previous studies have been validated, and it remains an unproven notion that AAO is a marker for different subtypes of OCD. If AAO is a clinical indicator of different biological subtypes, then subgroups based on distinct AAOs should have separate normal distributions as well as different clinical characteristics.

Method. Admixture analysis was used to determine the best-fitting model for the observed AAO of 161 OCD patients.

Results. The observed distribution of AAO in OCD is a mixture of two Gaussian distributions with mean ages of 11·1±4·1 and 23·5±11·1 years. The first distribution, defined by early-onset OCD, had increased frequency of Tourette's syndrome and increased family history of OCD. The second distribution, defined by late-onset OCD, showed elevated prevalence of general anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder.

Conclusions. These results, based on a statistically validated AAO cut-off and those of previous studies on AAO in OCD, suggest that AAO is a crucial phenotypic characteristic in understanding the genetic basis of this disorder.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , February 2005 , pp. 237 - 243
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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