title: Spatial behavior reflects the mental disorder in OCD patients with and without comorbid schizophrenia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Resolving the entangled nosological dilemma of whether obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with and without schizophrenia (schizo-OCD and OCD, respectively) are two independent entities or whether schizo-OCD is a combined product of its parent disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  Studying motor activity in OCD and in schizo-OCD patients. Performance of the patients was compared with the performance of the same motor task by a matching control individual.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Behavior in both schizo-OCD and OCD patients differed from controls in the excessive repetition and addition of acts, thus validating an identical OC facet. However, there was a significant difference in spatial behavior. Schizo-OCD patients traveled over a greater area with less focused activity as typical to schizophrenia patients and in contrast to OCD patients, who were more focused and traveled less in a confined area. While schizo-OCD and OCD patients share most of the OC ritualistic attributes, they differ in the greater spread of activity in schizo-OCD, which is related to schizophrenia disorder.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is suggested that the finding on difference in spatial behavior is a reflection of the mental differences between OCD and schizophrenia. In other words, this could be an overt and observable manifestation of the mental state, and therefore may facilitate the nosology of OC spectrum disorders and OCD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It seems as if both the OCD patients' focus on specific thoughts, and the contrasting wandering thoughts of schizophrenia patients, are reflected in the focused activity of the former and wandering from one place to the next of the latter.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Zoology, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Anat
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gershoni
authors.affiliation: 2 CBT Unit, Geha Mental Health Center, Petah Tikva, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Haggai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hermesh
authors.affiliation: 3 National OCD Treatment Service, Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Welwyn Garden City, UK.
authors.forename: Naomi A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Fineberg
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Zoology, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Eilam
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity; D009068:Movement; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult