[Clozapine and obsessive-compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia. A case history of one patient]

Nervenarzt. 1999 Jan;70(1):64-7. doi: 10.1007/s001150050401.
[Article in German]

Abstract

In the examination in question, the case history of a patient who had exhibited serious obsessive-compulsive symptoms since the age of 14 is described. It is not an independent obsessive-compulsive disorder, but a case of schizophrenia masked by obsessive-compulsive symptoms. During therapy for the schizophrenic symptoms with clozapine, which set in at the age of 31, neither psychotic symptoms nor obsessive-compulsive symptoms worth mentioning can be found at the 1-year catamnesis. Whereas the literature increasingly points to obsessive-compulsive symptoms being a side-effect of clozapine medication, usually in the clinical indication area of chronic schizophrenic psychoses, as far as the author knows, this describes a rare case of improvement of obsessive-compulsive symptoms using clozapine after first suffering from a schizophrenic disorder. The meaning of differential diagnostics of obsessive-compulsive phenomena for adequate pharmacotherapy is discussed using the example of the individual case.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • English Abstract

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Antipsychotic Agents / therapeutic use*
  • Clozapine / therapeutic use*
  • Diagnosis, Differential
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / complications
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / diagnosis
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / drug therapy*
  • Schizophrenia / complications
  • Schizophrenia / diagnosis
  • Schizophrenia / drug therapy*

Substances

  • Antipsychotic Agents
  • Clozapine