Affiliations: Psychology Department, Institute of Psychiatry, De
Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. | Wessex Neurological Centre, Southampton General
Hospital, Southampton, UK. | National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery,
Queen Square, London, UK. | Department of Psychological Medicine, Royal Free
Hospital, London, UK. | Department of Psychiatry, University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong. | Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford,
Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK.
Abstract: While several studies have detected raised levels of neurological
soft signs in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), the
specificity of these abnormalities remains uncertain. This study used a new
standardised measure, the Cambridge Neurological Inventory (CNI), to assess
soft signs in 51 subjects with OCD. Comparison was made with data on patients
with schizophrenia and a non-clinical control group from a previously reported
study. Individuals with OCD showed raised levels of soft signs compared with
non-clinical controls in many categories of the CNI: Motor Coordination,
Sensory Integration, Primitive Reflexes, Extrapyramidal Signs, and Failure of
Suppression. Compared with patients with schizophrenia, the OCD group had lower
levels of neurological signs in some CNI categories: Hard Signs, Motor
Co-ordination, Tardive Dyskinesia, Catatonic Signs, and Extrapyramidal Signs.
However, levels of soft signs in the OCD group did not significantly differ
from those in the schizophrenia group in other CNI categories: Sensory
Integration, Primitive Reflexes and Failure of Suppression. The significance of
these patterns of findings is discussed.
