Performance of patients with refractory obsessive–compulsive disorder in the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale

Abstract

Objective: To compare the performance of patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) refractory to conventional treatments to healthy controls according to the Frontal Systems Behaviour Scale (FrSBe), comparing the scale scores within each group (Self or Family) and correlating FrSBe with Y-BOCS, DY-BOCS, tic disorder and age of first symptoms.

Method: Twenty OCD patients and 20 healthy controls were assessed using the FrSBe, a scale designed to evaluate frontal syndromes.

Results: The patients had higher scores when compared with the control group (p value < .001) in terms of total score on the scale for both profile forms (Self and Family). In addition, there was a significant difference between the scores reported by the patients and their respective relatives. However, no correlation was observed between the scale and the other variables.

Conclusions: The scale was able to clearly differentiate patients with OCD from healthy controls. This finding suggests that the FrSBe can be used not only in neurologic patients but also in psychiatric cases such as refractory OCD.

Keywords:

• Obsessive–compulsive disorder
• Psychiatric status rating scales
• Treatment outcome
• Prefrontal cortex
• Neurobehavioral manifestations
• Y-BOCS
• FrSBe
• DY-BOCS

This study was supported by grants from the FAPESP (Foundation for the Support of Research in the State of São Paulo) No. 07/51486-0 to Dr Batistuzzo and 2005/55628-08 to Dr Miguel. Dr Miguel also received funding for this study was provided in from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Grant number: 521369/96–7).