[Parkinson's disease and obsessive-compulsive spectrum]

The description of obsessive symptoms associated with neurological diseases are in the basis of the neuroanatomical models of obsessive-compulsive disorder, with participation of basal ganglia and frontal lobes in its ethiopathogenesis. In the last years, the growth of obsessive-compulsive phenomena -- including personality features or symptoms -- and impulse control disorders -- at the other extreme of the spectrum -- in patients with Parkinson's disease were frequently reported. It was proposed that this association could be other proof of the role of basal ganglia in the characteristic features of the obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders.

A review in Medline was conduced using the expressions 'obsessive compulsive Parkinson' and 'impulse control Parkinson'. The purpose of this review was to compile the current evidence about these associations.

There are sufficient data to support that the growth of impulse control disorders in parkinsonian patients are not produced by chance. It was mainly related with the dopaminergic agonist treatments. More controversial is the growth of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in Parkinson's disease. The studies found have shown contradictory results and important methodological disparities that included even the definition of obsessive phenomenon.

Further and more rigorous studies about these topics are needed, because they could produce and important advance in the knowledge of the neurobiology of these entities.