Obsessivecompulsive symptoms in schizophrenia: Prevalence, clinical features and treatment. A literature review

Objectives. To investigate the prevalence of obsessivecompulsive symptoms in schizophrenia, the clinical features of the sub-group of patients with schizophrenia and obsessivecompulsive symptoms and treatment options for these patients. Method. A literature review of studies investigating the prevalence, clinical features and treatment of patients with schizophrenia and obsessivecompulsive symptoms. Results. The prevalence of obsessivecompulsive symptoms in schizophrenic patients, while generally found to be higher than in the general population, varies widely between different studies. Differences in symptom severity between schizophrenic patients with obsessivecompulsive symptoms and those without have been found, however findings so far have been inconsistent. A number of case reports have implicated atypical antipsychotic medication in the emergence of obsessivecompulsive symptoms. There is evidence to support a combined treatment with an antipsychotic agent and an anti-obsessional agent. Conclusion. Studies investigating the prevalence of obsessivecompulsive symptoms in schizophrenia and their effect on the clinical symptoms have yielded inconsistent results and further studies using larger samples of patients and looking at different subgroups of schizophrenic patients are required. Treatment options need further research to investigate whether the results of relatively small studies can be replicated.