COVID-19 increases the risks of obsessive compulsive disorder in children and young adolescents, as per study

The novel coronavirus has disrupted millions of lives and continues to take a toll on people's physical and mental well being. While scientists and researchers are tirelessly working towards developing a clinically approved vaccine and stopping the spread of the COVID-19, mental health has become a serious issue in the background. Especially in terms of children and young adolescents, COVID-19 has increased risk of obsessive compulsive disorders, as per study.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, popularly known as OCD, is a mental condition, where a person experiences repeated sets of thoughts and fears and/or feels the need to perform a task repeatedly, which only increases or heightens the level of distress and despair in the person. It could range from unwanted thoughts such as fear of germs and dirt to habits that trigger continuous and repetitive actions like biting nails and/or arranging things.

While COVID-19 has taken a serious toll on adults and elderly people, considering the fact that they are more vulnerable to the disease, children and adolescents have also been drastically affected by it. Researchers have claimed that while the fear, stress, anxiety and trauma associated with COVID-19 infections cannot be compared with trauma related to child sexual abuse, the novel coronavirus has surely increased cases of depression, anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children. Additionally, those children who have fallen victims to traumatic experiences in the past have been proven to be more susceptible to the mental health risks due to COVID-19.

The recent study, conducted at the Aarhus University and the Centre for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Denmark, states that COVID-19 has triggered and worsened the state of obsessive compulsive disorder in children and young adults.

For the study, researchers had sent questionnaires in spring 2020 to two groups of children and adolescents between the ages of seven and 21 years. One set of volunteers consisted of patients newly diagnosed at a specialized OCD clinic, while the other had volunteers identified by the Danish OCD Association.

As per the study, almost half of the children and young people who belonged to the first group reported that their symptoms had worsened, while a third of them replied that their anxiety had worsened. The researchers found that participants from both groups experienced a worsening of their OCD and the worsened symptoms were more significant in the second group.

According to Per Hove Thomsen, study co-author from Aarhus University, "Their experience was that their OCD, anxiety, and depressive symptoms worsened during a crisis like COVID-19. This worsening was most pronounced for the group identified through the OCD Association."