[Quality of life in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: relations with cognitive functions and clinical symptoms].

OBJECTIVE To compare quality of life in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder with that in healthy subjects and to relate quality of life to cognitive functions and the severity of clinical symptoms. METHODS Twenty-three patients who met DSM-IV criteria for obsessive compulsive disorder and 22 healthy subjects were included in the study. Quality of life (Turkish Quality of Life Scale-Brief Form) and cognitive functions were investigated in all subjects. In the patient group the relation of quality of life to the cognitive functions and to the severity of clinical symptoms and in the control group the relation of quality of life to the cognitive functions was investigated. RESULTS The comparison of quality of life between the patient and control groups showed a significant difference (F= 2.60, p= 0.04). The significant differences between the two groups in psychological and social scores were responsible for the overall significant difference. The scores of quality of life were correlated with the scores of the cognitive tests (Trail Making Test, Auditory Consonant Trigram Test and Digit Span Test) and the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. CONCLUSION The present study revealed that quality of life is lower in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder than in healthy subjects and is related to cognitive functions and the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms.