Clomipramine treatment of repetitive behavior

The paper describes an informal, open trial of the effect of clomipramine on 8 patients with repetitive behaviors which were not part of a classical obsessive-compulsive neurosis. Six chronic schizophrenics had obsessions, compulsions and rituals in addition to their schizophrenic symptoms. Four of the six showed reduction in the repetitive behavior with clomipramine. Two cases in which the target symptom and overall clinical picture had little in common with obsessive compulsive neurosis, are reported in detail. Both improved with clomipramine. It is suggested that clomipramine may be useful in the treatment of a broad range of psychiatric disorders characterized by repetitive mental or behavioural phenomena, but which do not fulfill criteria for obsessive-compulsive neurosis.