People with obsessive-compulsive disorder have three times the risk of stroke

Jun 24, 2021

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a serious chronic mental illness, which is mainly manifested as recurring obsessive thoughts or behaviors, including obsessive suspicion, fear of dirt, symmetrical needs, over-organization, repeated inspections, etc. It is characterized by recurring And unwanted thoughts and behaviors. Previous studies have found that obsessive-compulsive disorder usually occurs after a stroke or other brain injury. At present, it is not clear whether OCD will increase the risk of stroke.

Recently, researchers from the Department of Psychiatry at the Chinese Taipei Veterans General Hospital published a research paper entitled "Increased Risk of Stroke in Patients With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Nationwide Longitudinal Study" in the "Stroke" journal of the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The study found that adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder have more than three times the risk of ischemic stroke in later life than adults without obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The researchers checked the health records from 2001 to 2010 in the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database to compare the stroke risk of 28,064 adults with OCD and 28,064 adults without OCD. The average age of obsessive-compulsive disorder diagnosed is 37 years, and the proportion of women and men in the data is almost equal. The researchers compared the 11-year stroke risk between the two groups.

Survival curve of ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke in the obsessive-compulsive disorder group (solid line) and the control group (dashed line)

Studies have shown that in the past 11 years, people with OCD are more than three times more likely to have a stroke than people without OCD. Data shows that people aged 60 and above are the most threatened.

Comparison of the risk of ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke between the obsessive-compulsive disorder group and the control group at different ages

The study authors said that even if other factors such as obesity, heart disease, smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes are taken into account, the risk of stroke still exists.

When death is used as a risk assessment, obsessive-compulsive disorder is still associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke, but not with hemorrhagic stroke. In addition, in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, the use of drugs for obsessive-compulsive disorder is not associated with the risk of ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke.

The researchers emphasize that the study is observational, so it can only show the association between obsessive-compulsive disorder and stroke, and cannot prove causality.

In short, the research results suggest that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder should be encouraged to maintain a healthy lifestyle, such as quitting smoking, regular physical exercise, weight control, etc., to reduce risk factors related to stroke.