Because OCD has a genetic link, there doesn’t seem to be much that connects the onset of the diseases to age, gender, race or socioeconomic factors. One Canadian study, in which OCD prevalence was reported to be between 0.75% and 1.11% of the total population, found that participants who came from lower-income households, had other mental or behavioral health issues, or had experienced childhood trauma were more likely to also be suffering from OCD.
Age also has some relation with OCD. Researchers suspect that inherited cases of OCD may be more likely to start when a person is younger. A review of two studies, cited by The International OCD Foundation, suggests that the genetic linkages were higher the lower the age of onset.
The same source also mentions PANDAS, a rare condition in which children develop OCD at a young age as a response to infection in the body. Teen OCD stats aren’t very well established, but by the age of 14, it’s estimated that 25% of OCD cases will have manifested in those with the mental disorder.
This research suggests that there’s still much to be learned about the causes and origins of OCD.
OCD and Suicide Deaths
OCD is a disease that can often — at least in less severe cases — be managed. This has caused society to underestimate the disorder as a whole. Unfortunately, in the most severe cases, some of the symptoms of OCD have been described as “torture.”
People often try to train themselves to stop following patterns of compulsive behavior. When they fail, it can be extremely disheartening, which is why OCD often co-occurs with depression, anxiety and common coping methods like substance abuse and addiction. Conventional wisdom would say that, while OCD isn’t life-threatening in and of itself, the population with this disorder may show a higher suicide rate than one without mental illness.
IntrusiveThoughts.org, a website that aims to raise awareness about OCD and methods of treatment, backs this up by citing studies suggesting that people with OCD are up to 10% more likely to commit suicide than the general population. Additionally, 5–25% of people with OCD report at least one suicide attempt in their lives.
Self-harm can be a symptom of OCD as well. People with the disease have intrusive thoughts, many of which are about doing something impulsive to themselves or others. While most patients suppress these unsettling thoughts, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that a person could be driven to suicide by this condition.