Schizophrenia Daily News Blog

OCD & Schizophrenia Overlap

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and schizophrenia have a good amount of things in common. "Although OCD and schizophrenia are distinct diagnostic entities, there is considerable overlap between the two disorders in terms of clinical characteristics, brain areas that are affected and pharmacotherapy" (Price, 2005). Those who have OCD are not more likely to develop schizophrenia, but those with schizophrenia are more likely to develop OCD. Around 8% to 46% of patients with schizophrenia also have OCD, whereas the general population has a 1.2% to 2.4% percentage that develops OCD. Yet the relationship between these two disorders is not fully understood as of yet.

As Price (2005) states, "Patients with "pure" OCD exhibit delayed memory, response inhibition and impaired performance in alternation learning. Such learning impairment in OCD patients has been demonstrated in measures sensitive to changes in orbitofrontal cortex function. Among patients with chronic OCD, the odds of schizotypy are substantially increased with early age of OCD onset, male gender, counting compulsions and a history of a specific phobia. Overlapping brain areas--thalamus, caudate nucleus, anterior cingulate, and prefrontal cortex--have also been consistently implicated in both disorders."

One of the criteria used to diagnose OCD is how aware the patient is of the unreasonable or excessive nature of his/her obsessions and compulsions. Delusional thinking is often associated with a lack of insight in to such things. Those who have both schizophrenia and OCD usually have a more severe functional impairment and other more severe effects of the illnesses.

The relationship between OCD and schizophrenia need to be further studied, but there is no denying that they have and intricate and complex relationship.

The source of this article is Jossey-Bass, an Imprint of Wiley Brown University Psychopharmacology Update, written there by Lawrence H. Price.

For more information on the link between schizophrenia and OCD go to: http://tinyurl.com/a2blg