Neuropsychological profile of schizophrenia with and without obsessive compulsive disorder

Neuropsychological profile of schizophrenia with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in comparison with that of schizophrenia without OCD is understudied and the results are inconsistent. We hypothesize that patients having schizophrenia with OCD ('schizo-obsessive disorder') may have unique neuropsychological deficits in comparison with those with schizophrenia alone, particularly with respect to executive functions. Thirty patients with schizo-obsessive disorder and 30 individually matched patients with schizophrenia without any obsessive-compulsive symptoms formed the sample of the study. Neuropsychological assessment included tests for attention, executive functions and memory. Patients with schizo-obsessive disorder did not differ from those with schizophrenia alone with respect to measures of attention, executive functions and memory. Our findings do not support unique neuropsychological profile of schizo-obsessive disorder. Studying a larger sample of drug-naive patients in a longitudinal design may provide us more insights in to this.