Obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents: a study of parental psychopathology and precipitating events in 20 consecutive Danish cases.

The family history of obsessive-compulsive (OCD) and other psychiatric disorders of 20 children and adolescents, consecutively referred for OCD, is described and compared with that of 20 comparison patients, matched for age and gender. OCD, current or past, was found in 3 fathers to OCD patients, and obsessive-compulsive behaviour was found in 5 fathers and 3 mothers to OCD patients but only in 1 mother to a comparison patient. Over half of the patients reported about precipitating events for their obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The type of triggering event seemed to be connected to the obsessive-compulsive symptomatology only in a few cases.