The authors examined 21 outpatients with obsessive-compulsive disorder
for five neurological soft signs and abnormalities on two
neuropsychological tests before and after 10 to 12 weeks of treatment with
serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Patients showed a mean of 1.8 soft signs.
Prevalences were finger-to-finger, 10%; adventitious movements, 29%; mirror
movements, 33%; impaired cube drawing, 33%; and agraphesthesia, 76%. The
Stroop Color and Word Test was abnormal in 10% and the Controlled Oral Word
Association Test was abnormal in 14% of patients. Neither the presence of
specific soft signs, the number of signs present, nor a combination of
signs and test abnormalities predicted a poorer response to pharmacological
treatment. Some baseline soft signs and abnormalities disappeared at
endpoint in medication responders and nonresponders; no clear pattern of
change emerged.Abstract Teaser