Association of drugs and presence or development of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia patients: a naturalistic longitudinal observation during hospitalization

Objective: To investigate existing obsessive-compulsive symptoms in hospitalized schizophrenia patients and to observe the association of these symptoms and medical treatment from hospitalization to discharge.

Methods: This study included 45 patients with schizophrenia hospitalized at the men’s psychotic disorders clinic at Bakirkoy Mazhar Osman Mental Health and Neurological Diseases Education and Research Hospital in April-May 2014. Patients were reevaluated at hospitalization with SCID-I (The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders) by a psychiatrist to confirm the diagnosis and to define any additional diagnosis. Particular socio-demographic and clinical features are received. Obsessive-compulsive symptoms severity was measured with the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), psychotic symptoms severity with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).

Results: A total of 12 out of 45 patients had obsessive compulsive symptoms. We had two group of patients, Group I without antipsychotic treatment for at least 3 months (19 patients) and group II with antipsychotic treatment (26 patients). Group I had higher PANSS positive, PANSS negative and PANSS total scores and group II had higher Y-BOCS scores at the time of hospitalization.

Conclusion: Our results show that the patients with obsessive compulsive symptoms had higher PANSS scores.