DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2019.v07i12.051

Pages: 4085-4090

Context: Neurological soft signs (NSS) are minor neurological signs that reflect dysfunction in areas of motor coordination, sensory function and complex motor tasks, without localization. Schizophrenia and OCD are considered to be neurodevelopmental disorders with structural and functional brain abnormalities. Aims: To study the socio-demographic profile of the drug naive patients with first episode Schizophrenia and OCD and to assess and compare neurological soft signs in them. Setting and design: Cross-sectional study includes patients in both in-patient and out-patient setting. Methods and Material: A total of 90 patient’s i.e. 30 each of drug naive first episode OCD, Schizophrenia and healthy controls fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria were recruited by non-probability sampling method and subjected to semi-structured Psychiatric Thesis Performa, The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) and Heidelberg Manual for assessment of NSS. Statistical analysis used: Statistical analysis was performed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS 20.0.0) software. The data was analysed using the chi-squared test and Pearson's co-relational analysis. Results: On comparison of sociodemographic profile variables, patients of OCD as compared to patients of Schizophrenia were in higher age group (p=0.005) and more educated (p=0.006).The maximum percentage of NSS was found in schizophrenia (76.7%) followed by OCD (46.7%) and healthy controls (23.3%) and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). The NSS score significantly correlated with duration of illness of schizophrenia (r=0.518) as well as OCD (r=0.975). Conclusions: NSS are considered as endophenotypes and support the neurodevelopmental basis for both disorders.