Received: 21 January 2021 | Revised: 23 June 2021 | Accepted: 15 August 2021

DOI: 10.1002/jclp.23240

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Psychiatric comorbidities of obsessive‐compulsive

disorder: A series of systematic reviews and
meta‐analyses

Charlotte Rowe | Aurore Deledalle | Abdel Halim Boudoukha

Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la

Loire LPPL‐EA4638, Faculté de Psychologie, Abstract
Université de Nantes, Nantes, France
Objective: Although there is a growing number of studies
Correspondence on psychiatric comorbidities of obsessive‐compulsive
Charlotte Rowe, Laboratoire de Psychologie
disorder (OCD), controversy remains about the strength of
des Pays de la Loire LPPL‐EA4638, Faculté de
Psychologie, Université de Nantes, France, associations between some disorders. We present a series of
Chemin de la Censive du Tertre, 44000
systematic reviews and meta‐analyses examining four
Nantes, France.
Email: [email protected] psychiatric disorders frequently associated with OCD—
depression, bipolar disorder, substance abuse disorder and
psychosis.
Methods: Three electronic databases were searched up
to May 2017; PsycINFO, Medline, and Web of Science.
Meta‐analyses using random effects models were conducted.
Results: The meta‐analyses found strong associations
between all comorbidities and OCD, particularly for
depression. In addition, a series of systematic reviews were
conducted giving information about the characteristics of
these psychiatric associations.
Conclusion: It is probable that these disorders share common
etiological factors, and thus trans‐diagnostic processes must
be addressed when offering treatment. Clinical implications of
these findings are discussed with suggestions for further
research in the area.

KEYWORDS
meta‐analysis, obsessive‐compulsive disorder, psychiatric
comorbidities, systematic review

J Clin Psychol. 2021;1–16. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jclp © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC | 1

2 | ROWE ET AL.

1 | INTRODUCTION

Obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental illness characterized by the presence of obsessions (ego‐dystonic
intrusive thoughts) and compulsions (mental or physical rituals) that take up a considerable amount of time (1 h or more
per day) or cause significant distress or impairment according to the DSM‐5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
Torres et al. (2006) found that around 62% of individuals with OCD had a psychiatric comorbidity, a large
percentage given that the prevalence is just 10% in other anxiety disorders. An Australian study (Crino et al., 2005)
gave an even higher figure—79.7%. Thus, it appears that comorbidity is the norm and not the exception when it
comes to OCD.
Many disorders seem to be comorbid with OCD; in this line, major depression is considered the most common
comorbidity of OCD. Evidence shows that comorbidity can affect treatment outcome in OCD (Overbeek et al., 2002).
It is, therefore, essential to properly quantify the overlap between disorders to better inform treatment. Emerging
literature shows that bipolar disorder has been suggested as a comorbidity to OCD and that OCD can have a
detrimental effect on the course of bipolar disorder (Simon et al., 2004), but this deserves to be studied further. After
affective disorders, psychotic disorders are usually discussed in terms of differential diagnosis. There is evidence that
comorbid psychosis is related to worse treatment outcome and greater neuropsychological impairment. Thus, it is
necessary to understand the strength of association between the two disorders (Eisen & Rasmussen, 1993).
Studies have shown significant comorbidity in individuals with OCD, yet the prevalence of these psychiatric
disorders is heterogeneous, with different articles producing variable results. Therefore, it is important to study
these correlations from both a qualitative (systematic review) and a quantitative (meta‐analysis) perspective. Two
main objectives drive this current paper:

(i) appreciating the strength of the link between four psychiatric comorbidities of OCD through a series of
meta‐analyses
(ii) better understanding the reciprocal effects on one another and looking at how this might need to be considered
in treatment through a succession of systematic reviews

The four psychiatric comorbidities chosen for this study are major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder,
psychosis and substance abuse disorder. In addition, affective disorders, specifically unipolar depression and bipolar
disorder, as well as severe mental illness in the form of psychosis and the comorbidity of substance abuse disorder,
were considered to be of clinical interest.

2 | M E TH O D

2.1 | Eligibility criteria

We included studies which: (1) were conducted on adult populations, defined as aged 16 or over; (2) included a measure
of OCD; (3) gave the prevalence of the comorbidity studied in an OCD population; (4) were written in English, French or
German; (5) were published in a peer‐reviewed journal; (6) were published between May 1980 and May 2017.

2.2 | Data sources and search strategy

Three electronic bibliographic databases were used—PsycInfo, MEDLINE and Web of Science. Search terms were
entered successively. For bipolar disorder, cyclothymia was considered a separate disorder. The term psychosis
covers schizophrenia and closely related disorders such as schizo‐affective disorder.
RESEARCH ARTICLES | 3

2.3 | Study selection

Study selection was undertaken in a three‐step process. At the first screening, abstracts were reviewed for
information leading to exclusion (too old, letters, comments and languages other than English, German and French).
Second, papers with data that could be used in a meta‐analysis (following the inclusion criteria previously
presented) were retained as well as duplicates. Finally, in a third wave, all articles that were not chosen for the
meta‐analysis but were useful for the systematic review were selected.
A total of 45 studies were collected for the meta‐analyses with a sum of 54,209 participants.

2.4 | Data extraction

The effect size used for this project was relative risk (RR). The distinction among the various measures of RR
(e.g., odds ratio, rate ratio and risk ratio) was ignored, assuming that OCD is a rare disease with a prevalence of
1.2% at 1 year (Ruscio et al., 2010).
RR was determined using raw data, mainly percentages, in the current study. Different articles using the same
dataset were only included if they concerned data on different comorbid correlates to avoid duplicating data.
An electronic data extraction form was developed and piloted. The following descriptive information was
extracted: the authors, the type of comorbidity studied, the number of participants, the risk ratio, the prevalence of
the comorbidity in the OCD sample, the country where the study was conducted in and the diagnostic tool used to
diagnose the comorbidity.

2.5 | Data analyses

Four separate random‐effects meta‐analyses were conducted. Percentage outcomes were converted to Risk Ratios
and pooled using R, in particular the packages meta and metafor.
In the absence of control groups, the prevalence of associated disorders was estimated in each case to be homo-
genous across studies. The prevalence of depression was taken as 8% (Kessler & Bromet, 2013), bipolar disorder at 1%
(Moreira et al., 2017), psychosis at 0.87% (Perälä et al., 2007), and substance abuse disorder at 1.5% (Broman et al., 2008).
Heterogeneity was measured using the I2 statistic. Higher values of I2 represent more heterogeneity.
Publication bias was determined using visually determined funnel plot symmetry.

3 | RESULTS

3.1 | Meta‐analyses

Table 1 summarizes the characteristics of the 45 studies retained for meta‐analysis.

The most used tool to diagnose OCD is the Yale‐Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale or Y‐BOCS (Goodman
et al., 1989) in 43.6% of cases, followed by the SCID or Structural Clinical Interview for DSM‐III/DSM‐IV
(First, 1997) in 28.2% of cases.
The most widely used tool to diagnose psychiatric comorbidities of OCD was the SCID (First, 1997) (53.8%)
followed by the MINI, the Mini International Neuropsychological Interview at 12.8% (Sheehan et al., 1998). In the
case of bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, substance abuse disorder and psychosis, we used a random
effects model as the diagnostic tools were not consistent across the studies.
The sample size of these studies ranges from 25 to 1078, with an average of 345.26 participants.
 4

TABLE 1 Characteristics of studies used in the meta‐analyses

|

Prevalence in OCD Diagnostic tool Diagnostic tool of

AuthoDate Comorbidity N RR sample (%) Country of OCD psychiatric comorbidity

LaSalle et al. (2004) Depression 339 8.11 65.90% US SCID SCID

Lochner et al., (2014) Depression 149 1.93 15.42% International MINI MINI

Rickelt et al., (2016) Depression 419 7.07 56.60% Netherlands Y‐BOCS SCID‐I/P

Klein Hofmeijer‐Sevink Depression 382 7.07 56.50% Netherlands Y‐BOCS SCID‐I/P

et al., (2013)

Pinto et al., (2006) Depression 293 8.40 67.20% US Y‐BOCS HAMD

Quarantini et al., (2011) Depression 818 8.40 67.50% Brazil Y‐BOCS BDI

Viswanath et al., (2012) Depression 545 3.78 30% India Y‐BOCS MINI

Altintas et al. (2015) Depression 140 5.63 45% Turkey Y‐BOCS SCID

Prabhu et al., (2013) Depression 161 2.80 22.40% India Y‐BOCS MINI

Torresan et al., (2009) Depression 858 8.55 68.40% Brazil Y‐BOCS SCID

Mohammadi et al., (2007) Depression 444 1.75 14% Iran SADS SADS

Torresan et al., (2013) Depression 330 7.42 59.40% Brazil Y‐BOCS SCID

Denys et al. (2004) Depression 420 2.59 20.70% The Netherlands MINI MINI

Tükel et al., (2002) Depression 147 9.44 39.45% Turkey Y‐BOCS Semi‐structured interviews

Bhattacharyya et al., (2005) Depression 218 2.06 16.50% India SCID SCID

Sun et al., (2015) Depression 278 3.10 24.82% China SCID SCID

Ruscio et al., (2010) Depression 78 4.81 40.70% US SCID and CIDI CIDI

Fireman et al. (2001) Bipolar Disorder 1078 6.03 6% US Case reports Case reports

Hantouche et al. (2002) Bipolar Disorder 628 10.99 11% France Case reports DSM‐IV

Maina et al., (2007) Bipolar Disorder 204 10.29 10.30% Italy Y‐BOCS SCID‐I
ROWE
ET AL.
TABLE 1 (Continued)

Prevalence in OCD Diagnostic tool Diagnostic tool of

AuthoDate Comorbidity N RR sample (%) Country of OCD psychiatric comorbidity

Marazziti et al., (2002) Bipolar Disorder 117 20.51 20.50% Italy Y‐BOCS Semi‐structured interviews
RESEARCH ARTICLES

Perugi et al. (1997, Bipolar Disorder 315 17.14 15.70% Italy DSM‐III Specially constructed OCD
1998, 2002) questionnaire

Perugi et al. (1997, Bipolar Disorder 135 19.26 35.10% Italy DSM‐III Specially constructed OCD
1998, 2002) questionnaire

Timpano et al., (2012) Bipolar Disorder 605 13.06 13.10% US SCID‐P SCID‐P

Ruscio et al., (2010) Bipolar Disorder 73 23.29 23.40% US SCID SCID

de Haan et al., (2009) Psychosis 757 1.97 1.70% The Netherlands SCID SCID

Stanley et al., (1990) Psychosis 25 32.18 8% US ADIS‐R SCID

Eisen et al. (1993) Psychosis 475 15.73 13.68% US SCID SCID

Klein Hofmeijer‐Sevink Psychosis 382 5.42 4.70% The Netherlands Y‐BOCS SCID
et al., (2013)

Torres et al., (2006) Psychosis 114 3.02 12.70% Great Britain CIS‐R CISR

Yaryura‐Tobias et al., (2000) Psychosis 132 12.19 10.60% US SCID SCID

Klein Hofmeijer‐Sevink Substance Abuse 382 9.08 13.60% The Netherlands Y‐BOCS SCID
et al., (2013) Disorder

Pinto et al., (2006) Substance Abuse 293 17.06 25.60% US Y‐BOCS SCID
Disorder

Viswanath et al., (2012) Substance Abuse 545 2.08 17% India Y‐BOCS MINI
Disorder

Ruscio et al., (2010) Substance Abuse 71 26.29 38.60% US SCID and CIDI CIDI
Disorder

Yaryura Tobias et al. (2000) 132 6.57 9.80% US SCID SCID

|

(Continues)
5
 6

TABLE 1 (Continued)
|

Prevalence in OCD Diagnostic tool Diagnostic tool of

AuthoDate Comorbidity N RR sample (%) Country of OCD psychiatric comorbidity

Substance Abuse
Disorder

Adam et al., (2012) Substance Abuse 30 20.00 30% Germany M‐CIDI DIA‐X/M‐CIDI
Disorder

Mancebo et al., (2009) Substance Abuse 323 17.96 27% US Butler Hospital SCID
Disorder OCD Database,

Gentil et al., (2009) Substance Abuse 630 4.97 7.50% Brazil Y‐BOCS SCID
Disorder
ROWE
ET AL.
RESEARCH ARTICLES | 7

3.1.1 | Major depressive disorder

Twelve studies were retained with a total of 6019 participants. The result of the meta‐analysis shows a RR = 4.77 (3.58;
6.35). This indicates that individuals with OCD are more likely to have major depressive disorder than the general
population. The results can be found in Figure 1. The I2 is 66% which represents a moderate level of heterogeneity.

3.1.2 | Bipolar disorder

Twelve studies were retained with a total of 22,495 participants. The result of the meta‐analysis shows a
RR = 13.88 (6.90; 27.90). This indicates that individuals with OCD are more likely to have bipolar disorder than the
general population. The results are given in Figure 2. The I2 is equal to 0%, indicating either an extremely low level
of heterogeneity or a bias based on the small sample size (Higgins et al., 2003).

3.1.3 | Psychosis

Eight studies were retained for meta‐analysis with a total of 22,839 participants. The result of the meta‐analysis
shows a RR = 7.86 (3.23; 19.14). This indicates that individuals with OCD are more likely to have psychosis than the
general population, as seen in Figure 3. The I2 is at 0%, which can mean extremely low heterogeneity but may be
explained by the small sample size (Higgins et al., 2003).

3.1.4 | Substance abuse disorder

Eight studies were retained with a total of 2406 participants. The result of the meta‐analysis shows a RR = 10.07
(5.44; 18.33). This indicates that individuals with OCD are more likely to have substance abuse disorder than the

FIGURE 1 Forest plot for depression

8 | ROWE ET AL.

FIGURE 2 Forest plot for bipolar disorder

FIGURE 3 Forest plot for psychosis

general population. Therefore, substance abuse disorder appears to be a correlate of OCD, as seen in Figure 4. The
I2 is equal to 7%, which represents a very small amount of heterogeneity.

3.2 | Examining the links between disorders: systematic reviews

3.2.1 | Major depressive disorder

First we examined the temporal precedence of the disorders, followed by an investigation of possible mediating
variables such as sex. Finally, we looked at the clinical characteristics of comorbid depression and OCD.
There is a strong correlation between OCD and depression (Crino et al., 2005), but the temporal precedence of
either disorder remains a subject of debate. In an early study by Karno et al. (1988), patients with both OCD and
depression declared that their OCD preceded the depression. A subsequent paper (Kessler et al., 2005) found that the
age of the appearance of OCD was significantly younger than the onset of depression. Conversely, Crum and Anthony
(1993) showed that patients with depression were more likely to develop OCD. In a study by Grabe et al. (2001), there
was a higher prevalence of depression amongst individuals with OCD in both sexes, but the apparition of depression
was a mix of before, at the same time, or after the OCD. LaSalle et al. (2004) propose that depression is secondary to
the disabling effects of OCD and the demoralization when faced with the disorder. They also look at the practical side
of treatment, suggesting that when depression and OCD co‐exist, depression should be treated first. Rickelt et al.
(2016) found that OCD and depression are strongly correlated regardless of temporal precedence.
RESEARCH ARTICLES | 9

FIGURE 4 Forest plot for substance abuse disorder

Altintaş and Taşkintuna (2015) found that when comparing a group of patients with OCD and those with OCD
and depression, there was no difference in the ages, sex ratio, marital status, the presence of family history of OCD
or the period of latency between the appearance of OCD and the start of treatment. That being said, Torresan et al.
(2009) looked to find a difference between sexes. In his study, females had higher scores on depression scales.
However, patients with OCD and depression showed more avoidance, less insight and less stability. Viswanath et al.
(2012) showed that in patients with both illnesses, the more severe the depression becomes, the more there are
obsessions (in particular religious obsessions) and compulsions (above all, the need to touch items or to confess).
A further study conducted by Torresan et al. (2013) similarly showed a link between depression and sexual and
religious obsessions.
Pinto et al. (2006) attempted to see whether there was a difference in levels of comorbid depression between
those who developed OCD at an early age and those whose OCD appeared later in life. They found no difference in
levels of prevalence of depression. A typological analysis (Sun et al., 2015) showed that the severity of OCD was
linked to the severity of comorbid depression and anxiety, along with feelings of powerlessness.
We can, therefore, assume that depression could be a risk factor or a consequence of obsessive‐compulsive
disorder and that it is probable that the two illnesses share common etiological factors.

3.2.2 | Bipolar disorder

Initially, we looked at the prevalence of OCD in bipolar disorder and the reverse, followed by the risk of
misdiagnosis and the clinical characteristics of the OCD‐bipolar comorbidity.
A prospective study in the United States (Crum & Anthony, 1993) showed an elevated risk of developing OCD
in subjects with existing bipolar disorder. Likewise, a survey from Germany (Grabe et al., 2001) found a higher
prevalence of OCD in women with bipolar disorder. Amerio et al. (2015) carried out a meta‐analysis in both
directions; in patients with OCD, the prevalence of bipolar disorder was 18.35%, and the prevalence of OCD in
patients with bipolar disorder was 17.0%. This comorbidity seems to have a strong correlation.
A longitudinal project (Angst et al., 2004) showed that the prevalence of OCD and obsessive‐compulsive
symptoms was raised when a disorder on the bipolar spectrum (Bipolar I, Bipolar II, cyclothymia) was also present.
The authors suggested that diagnostic errors may lead to patients with OCD being misdiagnosed with unipolar
depression when, in reality, it is bipolar disorder.
Perugi et al. (1997) found that patients with comorbid bipolar disorder and OCD display significantly more
sexual and religious obsessions and fewer checking compulsions. In his study, it also became apparent that in
participants with this comorbidity, the onset of symptoms is less acute. A further study (Maina et al., 2007) similarly
10 | ROWE ET AL.

found that in those with both disorders, there is a preponderance of males with more sexual obsessions and
hoarding disorder. They also found that participants presented with higher rates of personality disorders. Perugi
et al. (1997) showed that patients with comorbid bipolar disorder showed fewer rituals (such as checking) and more
sexual and religious obsessions.
Perugi et al. (1998) showed that this comorbidity led to episodic OCD rather than the chronic course usually
seen in patients who do not present bipolar symptoms. Marazziti et al. (2002) remarked that patients presenting
with both psychiatric disorders had worse insight than those with only OCD. Patients with bipolar disorder also
showed more frequent abuse of alcohol, sedatives, stimulants and caffeine (Perugi et al., 1997).
We can, therefore, assume that bipolar disorder could be a risk factor or a consequence of obsessive‐
compulsive disorder and that it is probable that the two illnesses share common etiological factors.

3.2.3 | Psychosis

The prevalence of comorbid OCD and psychosis shows significant variation in the few studies available for analysis,
from 1.7% (de Haan et al., 2009) to 14% (Eisen & Rasmussen, 1993).
de Haan et al. (2009) found no difference between the clinical characteristics of subjects with psychosis with
and without comorbid OCD. However, patients with OCD and psychosis consumed more illicit substances and were
more often male. Stanley et al. (1990) remarked that patients with this comorbidity showed more delusions
and visual hallucinations than auditory hallucinations, mental automatisms or negative symptoms such as alogia
and apathy.
Insel and Akiskal (1986) suggested that the delusions that occur in some cases of OCD do not signify a
schizophrenic diagnosis but are transient reactive affective or paranoid psychoses. They found that patients at the
severe end of the OCD spectrum were more likely to present what they qualify as obsessive‐compulsive psychosis.
In summary, early studies showed that patients with OCD showed no greater risk of developing schizophrenia,
but later studies have shown there to be a link. It was thus important to conduct a meta‐analysis and to get a clearer
picture of the risk ratio.

3.2.4 | Substance abuse disorder

Adam et al. (2012) found an extremely high prevalence of substance abuse disorders in patients with OCD—39.3%.
One must remain vigilant in interpreting this figure as it was a “small N” study with just 30 participants in the OCD
group. However, other studies from Ruscio et al. (2010), Mancebo et al. (2009) and (Viswanath et al., 2012) all also
found a high level of comorbidity. In contrast, Yaryura‐Tobias et al. (2000) and Gentil et al. (2009) found more
moderate results. Mancebo et al. (2009) showed that the early development of OCD, as well as a comorbidity with
borderline personality disorder, were risk factors in developing substance abuse disorder.
Fals‐Stewart and Schafer (1992) found that patients with comorbid OCD and substance abuse that received
treatment for both conditions stayed in treatment longer, showed greater reductions in OCD symptom severity
and had higher abstinence rates at 12 months. Gentil et al. (2009) present the hypothesis that the appearance of
OCD precedes the development of substance abuse disorder. Following the results of his study, patients
with a comorbidity of OCD and substance abuse disorder are more often male, have benefitted more from
treatment programs and have more suicidal ideation. A high percentage of participants with substance
abuse disorder reported that psychoactive substances improved their OCD. They hypothesize that the anxiolytic
characteristics of these substances intensify the risk of maintaining the concomitant substance abuse when
suffering from OCD.
RESEARCH ARTICLES | 11

We can, therefore, assume that SUD could be a risk factor or a consequence of obsessive‐compulsive disorder
and that it is probable that the two illnesses come hand in hand regularly.

4 | DISC US SION

4.1 | Clinical implications

Our series of systematic reviews and meta‐analyses allow us to answer many questions emerging from recent
articles concerning obsessive‐compulsive disorder. All comorbidities were linked with OCD, which is essential when
proposing a holistic treatment of patients presenting with this disorder. Screening for other psychiatric correlates is
an important step in the treatment of both OCD and other mental illnesses.
It is not surprising to find a link between major depression and OCD which is such a disabling illness. What
needs to be examined is whether this is reactional depression or a clinical major depressive disorder that was
present before or after the onset of OCD. It would be interesting to introduce a longitudinal study to look at the
temporal precedence of the two disorders using participants with risk factors for either or both disorders (i.e., family
history). It is important to ensure the concomitant treatment of OCD and depression to avoid the demotivation that
occurs with a depressive illness, thus negating the effect of the cognitive behavioural therapy used to treat OCD. In
fact, Overbeek et al. (2002) found that in patients with comorbid depression and OCD, patients with only an OCD
diagnosis made more improvement than the comorbid group.
It is also probable that depression and OCD share common etiologies, whether neurobiological (e.g., the
anterior cingulate cortex; Graybiel & Rauch, 2000) or psychological (e.g., perfectionism; Sassaroli et al., 2008). This
shows the importance of screening for depression in OCD samples and addressing trans‐diagnostic processes when
offering treatment. Many therapists propose to work on depression before OCD when the two are comorbid, yet it
would be more relevant to take a holistic approach and address common trans‐diagnostic factors.
Bipolar disorder and OCD are strongly linked (R = 13.88), with both disorders impacting one another. In addition
to this, Perugi et al. (2002) found that the bipolar‐OCD comorbidity is associated with the presence of other
illnesses such as agoraphobia or panic disorder, making it essential to treat both illnesses as early as possible to
avoid the development of other comorbidities. However, one must exercise caution in the pharmacological
treatment, as the SSRIs used commonly to treat OCD are known to induce mania in a small section of patients with
bipolar disorder (Bottlender et al., 1998). This comorbidity is remarkably high, and research should be conducted
into common etiologies, be they neurobiological, psychological or both.
The risk ratio for developing psychosis in people with OCD is notably elevated. It is extremely important to look
at the role of insight. Traditionally, awareness of the ego‐dystonic characteristic of the obsessions is seen as a
diagnostic criterion for OCD, and lack of insight is seen as a hallmark of psychosis and delusional thinking. However,
lack of insight or reduced insight is experienced in a significant number of OCD sufferers (up to one‐third; Lelliott
et al., 1988). It is, therefore, debatable as to the point at which lack of insight becomes delusional. It is, therefore,
possible to imagine a spectrum of OCD with schizo‐typal symptoms and psychosis, with the two occurring along a
continuum of insight (Insel & Akiskal, 1986) with patients at the extreme end of the spectrum displaying what can
be defined as obsessive‐compulsive psychosis.
OCD and substance abuse disorder are highly comorbid. This self‐medication hypothesis is interesting as it
acknowledges that the start of the anxiety disorder, in this case, OCD, precedes the onset of substance abuse
(Robinson et al., 2009). This would allow us to hypothesize that OCD is a risk factor for substance abuse disorder. It
has also been shown that those with comorbid substance abuse who received treatment for both conditions had
better results and benefit more from treatment programs (Gentil et al., 2009) than those who received treatment
for just one of the conditions (Fals‐Stewart & Schafer, 1992). This shows the huge importance of screening for
comorbidities in substance use disorder.
12 | ROWE ET AL.

4.2 | Limitations

A serious limitation in the literature is a deficit of longitudinal studies. This prevents us from ascertaining the
temporal precedence of the disorders studied. If we can define which disorders are a cause or a consequence of
OCD, we can allow earlier intervention and prevent suffering and disability. Despite the lack of longitudinal studies,
it is nevertheless technically possible to model trajectories from data collected by cross‐sectional design through
the use of advanced statistics. For example, De Mathis et al. (2013) show that the primary diagnosis (OCD,
separation anxiety, ADHD or TIC) can predict the probability of the mean age of diagnosis of OCD and associated
comorbidities using Bayesian analysis.
Despite the limitations imposed by the heterogeneity of the studies in sampling, design, measurement, sta-
tistical analysis, and resulting effects, we did find strong associations. In addition, heterogeneity was either high
(depression), low (substance abuse disorder), or null—psychosis and bipolar disorder—(probably an error caused by
small sample size). Larger sample sizes and looking at grey literature (literature that has not been published) would
be preferable. In addition, the way that OCD is conceptualized has changed in the recent DSM‐5, and the papers
included in our study used the DSM‐IV or DSM‐III definitions of OCD to diagnose the disorder.
With the data available, we were unable to study sex differences in psychiatric comorbidities and the moderating
effect of sex on the risk ratios. It is well documented that more men present psychosis (Maric et al., 2003) and
substance abuse disorder is not gender‐specific (Brady & Randall, 1999). Depression has emerged as an important area
of focus, as epidemiologic data have consistently shown that depression is twice as common in women as in men
(Kornstein, 1997). Still, studies report an almost equal gender ratio in the prevalence of bipolar disorder (Diflorio &
Jones, 2010). It would be pertinent to see whether these epidemiological patterns follow the same course when
comorbid with OCD. It would also be pertinent to investigate comorbidity associated with OCD subtype and age of
onset and study how different OCD dimensions present some specific associations with comorbid disorders, which
may be indicative of different underlying pathogenic mechanisms as suggested by Torres et al. (2016).

5 | C ONC LUS I ON

In conclusion, we found strong associations between OCD and four comorbidities—major depressive disorder,
bipolar disorder, psychosis and substance use disorder. By better understanding these links, clinical applications can
be developed, and early intervention can be implemented. Further research, especially longitudinal, is warranted to
better understand the reciprocity of the disorders studied.

A C KN O W L E D G E ME N T
We would like to thank Astrid Juliot and Georgina Tomsett‐Rowe for their advice and proofreading, which has
assisted the authors in improving the quality of this article.

CO NFL I CT OF INTERES T S
The authors declare that there are no conflict of interests.

D A TA A V A I L A B I L I T Y S T A T E M E N T
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

ORCID
Charlotte Rowe https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1948-5007
Aurore Deledalle https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1086-3163
Abdel Halim Boudoukha https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9317-0396
RESEARCH ARTICLES | 13

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How to cite this article: Rowe, C., Deledalle, A., & Boudoukha, A. H. (2021). Psychiatric comorbidities of
obsessive‐compulsive disorder: A series of systematic reviews and meta‐analyses. Journal of Clinical
Psychology, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23240