Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:38:08.094Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia in three identical twin pairs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

S. W. Lewis*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, Institute of Psychiatry and Maudsley Hospital, London
B. Chitkara
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, Institute of Psychiatry and Maudsley Hospital, London
A. M. Revelely
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, Institute of Psychiatry and Maudsley Hospital, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr S. W. Lewis, Department of Psychiatry, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, St Dunstan's Road, London W6 8RP.

Synopsis

Three monozygotic twin pairs are described who are concordant for DSM-III-R obsessive-compulsive disorder while being discordant for schizophrenia or schizoaffiective disorder. Follow-up interview showed the non-psychotic co-twins to have schizotypal personality disorder. It is concluded that obsessive-compulsive and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders can truly co-exits, thus supporting diagnostic changes introduced into DSM-III-R, and may in some cases be inherited together.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1987). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edn, revised, APA: Washington.Google Scholar
Carey, G. & Gottesman, I. I. (1981). Twin and family studies of anxiety, phobic and obsessive disorders. In Anxiety: New Research and Changing Concepts (ed. Klein, D. F. and Rabkin, J.). Raven Press: New York.Google Scholar
Clifford, C. A., Murray, R. M. & Fulker, D. W. (1984). Genetic and environmental influences on obsessional traits and symptoms. Psychological Medicine 14, 791800.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duggan, C. F., Lee, A. S. & Murray, R. M. (1990). Does personality predict long-term outcome in depression? British Journal of Psychiatry 157, 1924.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Endicott, J. & Spitzer, R. L. (1978). A diagnostic interview: the schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry 35, 837844.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fenton, W. S. & McGlashan, T. H. (1986). The prognostic significance of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 143, 437441.Google ScholarPubMed
Insel, T. R. & Akiskal, H. S. (1986). Obsessive-compulsive disorder with psychotic features: a phenomenologic analysis. American Journal of Psychiatry 143, 15271533.Google ScholarPubMed
Jenicke, M. A., Baer, L., Minichiello, W. E., Schwartz, C. E. & Carey, R. J. (1986). Concomitant obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizotypal personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry 143, 530532.Google Scholar
Karno, M., Golding, J. M., Sorensson, S. B. & Burnham, R. A. (1988). The epidemiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder in 5 US communities. Archives of General Psychiatry 45, 10941099.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendler, K. S., Alan, M. D. & Gruenberg, A. M. (1984). An independent analysis of the Copenhagen sample of the Danish adoption study of schizophrenia. IV. Pattern of psychiatric illness as defined by DSM-III in adoptees and relatives. Archives of General Psychiatry 41, 555564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendler, K. S., Alan, M. D., Gruenber, A. M. & Tsuang, M. T. (1985). Psychiatric illness in the first-degree relatives of schizophrenic and surgical control patients: a family study using DSM-III criteria. Archives of General Psychiatry 42, 770779.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, A. (1936). Problems of obsessional illness. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 29, 325336.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, S. W. (1989). Congenital risk factors for schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine 19, 513.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McDonald, A. & Murray, R. M. (1989). A twin study of obsessive-compulsive neurosis.Paper presented at the Sixth International Congress on Twin Studies,Rome,283108.Google Scholar
Marks, I. M., Crowe, M., Drewe, E., Young, J. & Dewhurst, W. G. (1969). Obsessive-compulsive neurosis in identical twins. British Journal of Psychiatry 115, 991998.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poynton, A. M., Bridges, P. K. & Bartlett, V. R. (1988). Psychosurgery in Britain now. British Journal of Neurosurgery 2, 297306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rasmussen, S. A. & Tsuang, M. T. (1986). Clinical characteristics and family history in DSM-3 obsessive-compulsive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry 143, 317322.Google Scholar
Solyom, L., Di Nicola, V. F., Phil, M., Sookman, D. & Luchins, D. (1985). Is there a obsessive psychosis? Aetiological and prognostic factors of an atypical form of obsessive compulsive neurosis. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 30, 372379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torgersen, S. (1977). The determination of twin zygosity by means of a mailed questionnaire. Acta Genetica Medica et Gemellologiae 28, 225236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar