A prospective population-based cohort study of the prevalence, incidence and impact of obsessive-compulsive symptomatology.

Objective: Prospective longitudinal studies of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and sub-diagnostic obsessive-compulsive symptomatology in the non-clinical population, using age-defined cohorts, are rare. This study aimed to investigate the effect of OC symptoms on distress and psychosocial function and the effect of early-onset OC symptoms.

Methods: 591 subjects drawn from the general population of Zurich, Switzerland were interviewed seven times between 1979 (at age 20/21) and 2008 (age 49/50).