Obsessive-compulsive symptomatology has been described in schizophrenia
for more than 60 years, but its clinical significance has yet to be
explored systematically. This report details the clinical characteristics
and long-term course of a group of 21 schizophrenic patients with prominent
obsessive-compulsive symptoms from the Chestnut Lodge Follow-Up Study.
While this group differed on admission only minimally from schizophrenic
patients without obsessive-compulsive symptoms, their long-term outcome in
the areas of social relations, employment, psychopathology, and global
functioning was significantly, and almost uniformly, poorer. Persistent
obsessive-compulsive symptoms thus appear to be a powerful predictor of
poor prognosis in schizophrenia.Abstract Teaser