Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in Children 0–5 CLINICAL PEARLS • Symptoms of OCD can appear as early as two years old but cannot be diagnosed until age three. The diagnosis of OCD is more reliable between the ages four and five years. • The estimated prevalence in children ages five to seven years is 0.01%, compared to general pediatric patients at 0.5-4.0%. • Pre-pubertal onset is more common in boys than girls, in the ratio of 2–3:1. • OCD is diagnostically challenging as symptoms can overlap with other diagnoses such as autism. • A consult or evaluation by a child psychiatrist or a child psychologist should be done if it is thought that a young child may have OCD. • Clinicians can utilize the OSU Infant Mental Health ECHO or the OSU Pediatric and Behavioral Health ECHO for further consultation. ￮ OSU ECHO Lines RATING SCALES • Spence Preschool Anxiety Scale ￮ https://www.scaswebsite.com/index.php?p=1_31 ￮ General anxiety screening tool that has questions related to OCD. • Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS) symptom checklist. ￮ https://iocdf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/05-CYBOCS-complete.pdf ￮ Note: this scale is typically given by mental health professionals.
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