Obsessive–compulsive symptoms in adults with history of rheumatic fever, Sydenham's chorea and type I diabetes mellitus: preliminary results
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Objective: Rheumatic fever (RF) associated with Sydenham's chorea (a neurological variant of RF), but not RF without chorea, has been acutely related to obsessive–compulsive symptomatology/disorder (OCS/OCD). This study investigated the presence of OCS in adults who had RF with or without chorea in childhood.Method: The Yale‐Brown Obsessive–Compulsive Scale (Y‐BOCS) was used to evaluate OCS in 38 adults with history of RF (13 with chorea; 25 without chorea) or diabetes (controls; n = 19).Results: The OCS was similar in both groups, although the intensity of symptoms was not clinically relevant. Moreover, subjects with RF with or without chorea did not score differently in the Y‐BOCS.Conclusion: The similar occurrence of OCS in patients with history of RF and diabetes suggests that the development of this symptomatology, triggered by group A β‐haemolytic streptococcus infections, is restricted to the RF acute phase, occurred during infancy, and did not seem to predispose the appearance of OCS in adulthood.
