[Anamnestic and psychopathologic studies of obsessive-compulsive patients]

Twenty-eight patients, that is 0.8% of all 3,225 patients admitted between 1981 and 1986 in the Free University of Berlin, Department of Psychiatry, had a primary diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (ICD-9: 300.3). These patients were compared with random samples of equal size (N = 28) of schizophrenic psychoses paranoid type (ICD 295.3), manic depressive psychoses depressed type (ICD 296.1) and neurotic depressions (ICD 300.4) using an AMDP-based multiaxial diagnostic description. It turned out, that although obsessive-compulsive patients were best discriminated from the other clinical groups by their typical symptoms, they were characterized likewise by other psychopathological, especially depressive symptoms. In view of the course of obsessive-compulsive disorder, the findings were compatible with those of other reports. Beyond it, a subgroup of patients with relatively unfavourable course could be described by AMPD-items.