Adavalath Druhin1, Shalima Shoukkathaly2, Sumesh Balachandran3
BACKGROUND
Schizophrenia is a complex neurobehavioural disorder affecting about 1% of the general population. Schizophrenia is characterised by disordered cognition including a “gain of function” in psychotic symptoms and “loss of function” in specific cognitive functions such as working and declarative memory, but without the progressive dementia that characterises classical neurodegenerative disorder.
The primary aim of the study was to compare the profile of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia with and without obsessive compulsive symptoms.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study. Consecutive patients in the age group of 18-59 years diagnosed to have schizophrenia with at least 2 years of duration of illness consulting in outpatient department of psychiatry and inpatients admitted in psychiatry ward at a tertiary care centre at northern Kerala were included. Clinical status of the patient was assessed using Structured Clinical Interview for DSM - IV - TR (SCID I), the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS) and Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) severity and symptom checklist. YBOCS ≥16 was labelled as OCD. Sociodemographic profile of the patients will be collected using specially designed pro forma. Data analysis was done using software “R” (Chi-square and t test).
RESULTS
A total of 73 participants formed the study sample. The schizophrenia with OCS were better educated were more likely to come from a semi-urban background had alcohol dependence and longer duration of untreated illness than the group with schizophrenia alone. Though, there was increased frequency of paranoid subtype in the study sample, schizophrenia patients with OCD/OCS had majority of undifferentiated subtype. There is no difference in gender, family type, marital status, occupation, religion or socioeconomic status.
CONCLUSION
Schizophrenia patients with OCS/OCD and without OCS/OCD have comparable clinical profile with few exceptions. There is a scope for analysis of sociodemographic data of schizophrenia with OCS/OCD. Finally, the evidence to consider schizo-obsessive as a distinct diagnostic entity is inconclusive and warrants further studies.
