Investigating duration of illness and duration of untreated illness in obsessive compulsive disorder reveals patients remain at length pharmacologically untreated

Aim: Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a disabling condition, often associated with early onset and chronic course. Early onset combined to the secretiveness that frequently characterises the condition, as well as patient's beliefs that OC symptoms do not represent a medical condition and that OCD can remit spontaneously, are all factors contributing to delayed diagnosis and first treatment, particularly of pharmacological nature. Methods: In this short report, authors performed a review of the most recent literature in the field. Conclusions: The current literature clearly converge in delineate a duration of untreated illness of several years (around 7 years in the majority of them), which represented on average, a portion ranging between the 40 and 70% of the overall duration of untreated illness.