Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - Who Gets Affected?
The disorder is much more common than was previously recognized. Few people affected with obsessive-compulsive disorder tend to share their bizarre thoughts and actions, and their tendency to keep it secret plays a major part in underestimating the numbers. Some recent community studies, however, made a specific enquiry into the presence of the symptoms and found that the disorder has a lifetime prevalence of 1.9 - 3.0 per cent in the general population. The disorder begins most often in young people between the ages 18 and 24, but it may also affect children and older people. There is no gender bias and men and women are equally affected. The prevalence in first-degree biological relatives of individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder is higher than in the general population, and if one of the identical twins is affected, the other also runs a high risk of being affected, but this does not apply to non-identical twins.
Tagged under:biological relatives gender bias identical twins lifetime prevalence men and women obsessive compulsive disorder tendency