Occurrence and importance of obsessive syndrome in adolescent schizophrenia. (A retrospective study)
Abstract
The present study is concerned with the phenomenon of coexisting schizophrenic and obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms. The introduction provides with a literature review on the subject.
In a retrospective study we described a sample of 18 juvenile subjects (15 boys, 3 girls) in the mean age of 15.4 +- 2.1 years, who were treated at the Department of Child Psychiatry in the years 1998-2003 for comorbid schizophrenic and OC symptoms. In the sample we surveyed the illness course prior to the admittance to a hospital and described in detail symptoms of both diagnostic spectra, 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 most frequently administered therapy was a combination of antipsychotic and antidepressant (selective serotonin reuptake blockers) drugs, although the antipsychotic regimen alone was quite frequent as well.
Treatment response was less marked than in the treatment of non-complicated schizophrenia, from the mean baseline value of the first 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 do not support the hypothesis of a protective impact of the obsessive-compulsive syndrome in the initial stages of schizophrenic illness.
The results-interpretation of present study is limited with regard to the sample-size and the absence of a comparison group.