Moreover, our finding of increased cleaning obsessions and compulsions in patients reporting frequent ear or throat infections suggests that specific medical comorbidities—in this case, infections—may affect the content and severity of specific OCD symptoms. Alternatively, a patient's symptom severity may affect their perception of their medical history and reporting of illness. While there was no effect of comorbidity status on overall YBOCS score for the worst episode, other more sensitive differences in the course or expression of OCD—including episode duration, frequency, and mean severity—were not captured in this study.
