Seasonal Variations in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Analysis of Prospective-Clinical Data.

INTRODUCTION: Few studies have investigated potential seasonal changes in anxiety disorders. This study aimed to evaluate whether seasonal changes influence the severity of obsessive and compulsive symptoms in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The relationship between comorbid anxiety and depression symptoms and the seasons was also investigated. Furthermore, we compared the differences between retrospective data reliant on patients' recall and data obtained by prospective observation. METHODS: The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), Y-BOCS Symptom Checklist, Beck Anxiety Scale, and Beck Depression Scale were administered to 148 patients with OCD in each of the four seasons over a year. The relationships between the seasons and the scales based on retrospective observations of the patients, and between the seasons and scales based on prospective data collected over the year were analyzed. Scores from clinical assessments were compared between the different seasons. RESULTS: The severity of obsessive and compulsive symptoms, did not show seasonal changes. Multi-level growth models suggested that the change in Y-BOCS Total scores across seasons could be explained by subjective symptoms of depression and anxiety and their interactions. Importantly, results obtained using prospective observations from structured clinical assessment differed from those obtained using retrospective observations of patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our study does not support the existence of seasonal variations in symptoms of OCD. Future studies are needed to delineate seasonal variations in OCD symptoms.

The comorbidity of reduplicative paramnesia, intermetamorphosis, reverse-intermetamorphosis, misidentification of reflection, and capgras syndrome in an adolescent patient.

Delusional misidentification syndromes may be superimposed on neurological or psychiatric disorders and include delusional beliefs that the people, objects, or places around the patient change or are made to change with one another. In this paper, an adolescent patient displaying Capgras syndrome, metamorphosis, reverse-intermetamorphosis, misidentification of reflection, and reduplicative paramnesia was presented. The findings that our patient struggled with visuospatial tests applied in the acute phase as well as the observation that she refused to meet her family face-to-face while accepting to speak on the phone may support the role of right hemisphere and visuospatial functions in the development of those syndromes. Further studies or case series evaluated more extensively are needed to reveal the relationship between right hemisphere functions and delusional misidentification syndromes.