Case study: emergence of transient compulsive symptoms during treatment with clothiapine

Serotonergic dysregulation in obsessive-compulsive disorder has been repeatedly demonstrated. Recent reports on the emergence of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in patients treated with clozapine support a hyposerotonergic hypothesis of obsessive-compulsive disorder. The authors report the emergence of de novo compulsive symptoms in a drug-naive 8-year-old schizophrenic child, shortly after the initiation of treatment with clothiapine. Clothiapine, an atypical antipsychotic agent, shares with clozapine its strong antiserotonergic properties. It seems that antagonistic activity of atypical neuroleptics at postsynaptic serotonergic receptors might be responsible for the development of iatrogenic obsessive-compulsive symptoms.