Background People with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have faced unique challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research from the first two months of the pandemic suggests that a small proportion of people with OCD experienced worsening in their OCD symptoms since the pandemic began, whereas the rest experienced either no change or an improvement in their symptoms. However, as society-level factors relating to the pandemic have evolved, the effects of the pandemic on people with OCD have likely changed as well, in complex and population-specific ways. Therefore, this study contributes to a growing body of knowledge on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people and demonstrates how differences across studies might emerge when studying specific populations at specific timepoints. Objective This study aimed to assess how members of online OCD support communities felt the COVID-19 pandemic had affected their OCD symptoms, around 3 months after the pandemic began. Methods We recruited participants from online OCD support communities for our brief survey. Participants indicated how much they felt their OCD symptoms had changed since the pandemic began and how much they felt that having OCD was making it harder to deal with the pandemic. Results We collected survey data from June through August 2020 and received a total of 196 responses, some of which were partial responses. Among the nonmissing data, 65.9% (108/164) of the participants were from the United States and 90.5% (152/168) had been subjected to a stay-at-home order. In all, 92.9% (182/196) of the participants said they experienced worsening of their OCD symptoms since the pandemic began, although the extent to which their symptoms worsened differed across dimensions of OCD; notably, symmetry and completeness symptoms were less likely to have worsened than others. Moreover, 95.5% (171/179) of the participants felt that having OCD made it difficult to deal with the pandemic. Conclusions Our study of online OCD support community members found a much higher rate of OCD symptom worsening than did other studies on people with OCD conducted during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Factors such as quarantine length, location, overlapping society-level challenges, and differing measurement and sampling choices may help to explain this difference across studies.

We conducted a survey of adults with OCD during COVID-19, but found a much higher rate of OCD symptom worsening than similar studies did. Here, we describe our study and discuss potential reasons for these differing patterns of results.

BACKGROUND People with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have faced unique challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research from the first two months of the pandemic suggested that between 7% and 37% of people with OCD experienced worsening in their OCD symptoms since the pandemic began, while the rest experienced either no change or an improvement in their symptoms. However, as society-level factors relating to the pandemic have evolved, the pandemic’s impacts on people with OCD have likely changed as well, in complex and population-specific ways. Therefore, this work contributes to a growing body of knowledge on the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on people, and demonstrates how differences across studies might emerge when studying specific populations and at specific timepoints. OBJECTIVE Our study aimed to learn how members of online OCD peer support communities felt the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted their OCD symptoms, 3-4 months after the pandemic began. METHODS We recruited participants from online OCD peer support communities for our brief survey. Participants indicated how much they felt their OCD symptoms had changed since the pandemic began, and how much they felt that having OCD was making it harder to deal with the pandemic. RESULTS 196 people responded to our survey, although some participants skipped some questions. Among non-missing data, 65.9% (108/164) of respondents were from the United States and 90.5% (152/168) had been subjected to a stay-at-home order. 92.9% (182/196) of respondents said they experienced worsening of their OCD symptoms since the pandemic began, although the extent to which symptoms worsened differed across dimensions of OCD, with symmetry and completeness symptoms less likely than others to have worsened. 95.5% (171/179) of respondents felt that having OCD made it harder to deal with the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS Our study of online OCD peer support community members found a considerably higher rate of OCD symptom worsening than did other studies of people with OCD during the pandemic. Factors such as quarantine length, location, overlapping society-level challenges, and differing measurement and sampling choices may help to explain this difference across studies.