Occurrence and Importance of Obsessive Syndromein Adolescent Schizophrenia (A Retrospective Study)

Overview

The present study is concerned with the phenomenon of coexisting schizophrenic andobsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms. The introduction provides with a literature review on thesubject. In a retrospective study we described a sample of 18 juvenile subjects (15 boys, 3 girls) inthe mean age of 15.4 ± 2.1 years, who were treated at the Department of Child Psychiatry in theyears 1998–2003 for comorbid schizophrenic and OC symptoms. In the sample we surveyed the illnesscourse prior to the admittance to a hospital and described in detail symptoms of both diagnosticspectra, exhibited during the hospitalization. The mean length of hospitalization was 3.6 ± 1.5 month,therefore longer than the average treatment time in non-complicated schizophrenic illness. The mostfrequently administered therapy was a combination of antipsychotic and antidepressant (selectiveserotonin reuptake blockers) drugs, although the antipsychotic regimen alone was quite frequent aswell. Treatment response was less marked than in the treatment of non-complicated schizophrenia,from the mean baseline value of the fi rst item of CGI 5.8 ± 0.9 we observed a decline to 5.2 ± 1.1(p=0.004) after one month and further decline to 4.7 ± 1.6 (p=0.002) after another one. Our results donot support the hypothesis of a protective impact of the obsessive-compulsive syndrome in the initialstages of schizophrenic illness. The results-interpretation of present study is limited with regard tothe sample-size and the absence of a comparison group.

Key words:
schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive syndrome, psychopathology, treatment.