Effects of Antipsychotic Treatment on Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms

Abstract

The summarised concepts of schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) share common pathogenic mechanisms. This corresponds to the clinical phenomenology of patients presenting with both psychosis and obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS). The complex psychopathology of their co-occurrence might be elucidated if nosological knowledge and research perspectives of schizophrenia and OCD are combined. The current chapter focuses on the association between antipsychotic treatment, in particular clozapine, and OCS occurrence. Within this context, it is essential to differentiate catatonia and treatment-resistant psychotic symptoms from OCS, because clozapine is the antipsychotic of first choice in treatment-resistant schizophrenia but is not indicated in the treatment of OCS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)