Comorbid Psychiatric Disorders in Schizophrenia: More than Just a Chance Co-occurrence

Abstract

Psychiatric symptoms that aggregate as comorbid conditions are more the rule than the exception among people with schizophrenia. Foremost among these are depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms, and substance abuse. While the pathogeneses and even the prevalence of each among people with schizophrenia are widely debated, their existence is not disputed, and such comorbidities substantially complicate the management of schizophrenia, a condition which alone is already challenging enough to understand and treat. This book focuses on one symptom constellation—obsessive-compulsive symptoms—and it carefully teases out the biological significant and clinical implications of the OC comorbidity in schizophrenia from several complementary vantage points. The purpose of this brief chapter is to illuminate the prevailing themes and set the stage concerning the vexing question of psychiatric comorbidities and schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)