Department of Mental Health, Local Health Service, Parma, Italy.
Department of Medicine and Surgery, Psychiatric Unit, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
CNS Spectr. 2023 Aug;28(4):441-449. doi: 10.1017/S1092852922000165. Epub 2022 Feb 21.
Studies investigating obsessive-compulsive disorder from an ethological approach have highlighted a specific motor pattern of compulsive rituals with respect to corresponding ordinary behaviors. Particularly, compulsive motor profile is built through the repetition of acts, with prevalence of nonfunctional ones and redirection of attention to its basic structural units. These formal features would characterize ritual behavior throughout evolution, from nonhuman animals to human cultures. However, no study to date has investigated a possible relationship between such motor profile and underlying psychopathology. Therefore, the first objective of the study was to confirm previous findings on a larger sample size of obsessive patients; the second objective was to elucidate whether motor profile might be associated with obsessive-compulsive psychopathology and/or prepsychotic symptoms of schizophrenia.
Twenty-one obsessive-compulsive outpatients provided a videotape of their rituals. An equal number of healthy controls, matched for sex and age, were registered for corresponding ordinary acts. Obsessive patients were administered the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, the Brown Assessment of Beliefs Scale, the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, and the Frankfurt Complaint Questionnaire.
The results of the present study confirm that ritual compulsions present a specific motor structure characterized by repetition of both functional and nonfunctional acts and their longer duration. Such a motor pattern is independent from obsessive-compulsive psychopathology, whereas it results specifically associated with prepsychotic symptoms of schizophrenia.
We argue that this association may reflect the adaptive significance of ritual behavior across evolution, that is, its homeostatic function in conditions of unpredictability.
从行为学角度研究强迫症的研究强调了强迫仪式具有特定的运动模式，与相应的普通行为相对应。特别是，强迫运动模式是通过行为的重复建立的，其普遍性是非功能性的，并且注意力集中在其基本结构单元上。这些形式特征将贯穿从非人类动物到人类文化的进化过程中的仪式行为进行特征化。然而，迄今为止，尚无研究调查这种运动模式与潜在的精神病理学之间的可能关系。因此，该研究的第一个目标是在更大的强迫症患者样本中证实先前的发现；第二个目标是阐明运动模式是否可能与强迫症的精神病理学和/或精神分裂症的前驱症状有关。
21 名强迫症门诊患者提供了他们仪式的录像带。登记了数量相等的健康对照者，其性别和年龄相匹配，用于对应于普通行为。强迫症患者接受了耶鲁-布朗强迫症量表、布朗信念量表、汉密尔顿抑郁评定量表和法兰克福抱怨问卷的评估。
本研究的结果证实，仪式性强迫具有特定的运动结构，其特征是功能性和非功能性动作的重复以及它们的持续时间更长。这种运动模式与强迫症的精神病理学无关，而与精神分裂症的前驱症状具体相关。
我们认为这种关联可能反映了仪式行为在进化过程中的适应性意义，即在不可预测性条件下的稳态功能。
