Obsessive-compulsive phenomenon and Parkinson's disease
- 1Department of Psychiatry, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh-160 012, India
- Correspondence to: Professor N Gupta; tinysam{at}glide.net.in
Alegret et al1 have systematically studied patients with Parkinson's disease for presence of “obsessive-compulsive traits”. This study is based on the evidence that Parkinson's disease and obsessive-compulsive disorder have neuroanatomical overlap in terms of frontobasal ganglia circuitary involvement. Anatomical specificity of obsessive-compulsive disorder or obsessive-compulsive phenomenon has been previously studied in Tourette's syndrome, Huntington's chorea, Sydenham's chorea etc, but not in Parkinson's disease.2 The authors, through a cross sectional design, found significantly high scores on the Maudsley obsessive-compulsive Inventory (MOCI) and Leyton obsessional inventory (LOI) in severe Parkinson's disease. However, the presentation and interpretation of results merits further elucidation and clarification.
The aim has been mentioned as to “ . . .systematically investigate obsessive-compulsive traits in Parkinson's disease”, using MOCI and LOI. Although LOI is used to assess both obsessional symptoms and traits,3 MOCI is used to investigate the different types and rate severity of obsessive-compulsive complaints in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.3,4 Also, traits are defined as enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself that are exhibited in a wide range of important social and personal contents5 and are part and parcel of the personality of any person. On the other hand, obsessive-compulsive disorder is a clinical disorder characterised by recurrent obsessions or compulsions that causes distress …
