exploring the relationship between obsessive-compulsive disorder and chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome: a case-control study

Background: chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (cp/cpps) is recognized as a challenging condition with unclear underlying factors. despite the difficulties in treatment, psychological factors are thought to contribute to its symptoms.objectives: this investigation sought to examine the correlation between obsessive-compulsive disorder (ocd) and cp/cpps. methods: we assembled a case group comprising 30 patients diagnosed with cp/cpps and a control group consisting of 30 healthy individuals without the condition. the yale-brown obsessive-compulsive scale (y-bocs) was used to assess the prevalence of ocd in both groups. in contrast, the national institutes of health (nih) chronic prostatitis symptom index (nih-cpsi) was used to evaluate the severity of cp/cpps symptoms. results: the findings revealed no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of ocd between the group of individuals with cp/cpps and the healthy control group. however, patients with cp/cpps had significantly higher y-bocs scores compared to the control group. furthermore, we observed a significant positive correlation between y-bocs scores and nih-cpsi scores, suggesting that increasing ocd symptoms were associated with increased disease severity, pain, and decreased quality of life. multivariate analysis revealed that increasing y-bocs scores independently predicted cp/cpps symptom severity. conclusions: our findings highlight the importance of considering psychological factors, including ocd, in the management of cp/cpps. the results suggest that addressing ocd symptoms may be an important adjunctive treatment approach for improving symptom outcomes in patients with cp/cpps. future studies should investigate the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions targeting ocd in this population.