Confini tra disturbo ossessivo-compulsivo e depressione: Considerazioni psicopatologiche

At first sight, obsessivity and depression seem to be two different phenomena, even opposite in some aspects. However, it is clinically common to find obsessive-compulsive features together with depressive symptoms: Whereas the discriminant power of self-report questionnaires for obsessions and compulsions is not very high when Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders and Major Depression are compared. However, clinical and biological studies suggest a clear discrimination between this two disorders. The psycopathological analisys allows both to understand the apparent analogies and to show the essential structural differences between obsessive-compulsive and depressive phenomena.