Purcell R, Maruff P, Kyrios M, Pantelis C
Department of Psychology, The University of Melbourne, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Australia.
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1998 May;55(5):415-23. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.55.5.415.
The neuropsychological dysfunction associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has similarities to the deficits reported in other affective or anxiety disorders. We directly compared cognitive function in patients with OCD with that in matched patients with unipolar depression and panic disorder and healthy control subjects to establish the specific nature of neuropsychological deficits in OCD.
Thirty patients with OCD, 30 patients with panic disorder, 20 patients with unipolar depression, and 30 controls completed a computerized neuropsychological battery that assessed the accuracy and latency of executive, visual memory, and attentional functions.
The groups did not differ according to age, years of education, or estimated IQ. However, we found group differences in cognitive performance. The patients with OCD were impaired on measures of spatial working memory, spatial recognition, and motor initiation and execution. In contrast, performance of these tasks by patients with panic disorder or depression did not differ from that of controls. There were no group differences for performance on the measures of planning, cognitive speed, pattern recognition, and delayed matching to sample, although patients with depression were impaired for attentional set shifting.
Neuropsychological deficits were observed in patients with OCD that were not observed in matched patients with panic disorder or unipolar depression. As such, the cognitive dysfunction in OCD appears to be related to the specific illness processes associated with the disorder.
与强迫症（OCD）相关的神经心理功能障碍与其他情感或焦虑障碍中报告的缺陷有相似之处。我们将强迫症患者的认知功能与匹配的单相抑郁症患者、惊恐障碍患者以及健康对照者的认知功能进行直接比较，以确定强迫症中神经心理缺陷的具体性质。
30名强迫症患者、30名惊恐障碍患者、20名单相抑郁症患者和30名对照者完成了一套计算机化神经心理测试，该测试评估了执行功能、视觉记忆和注意力功能的准确性和潜伏期。
各组在年龄、受教育年限或估计智商方面没有差异。然而，我们发现了认知表现上的组间差异。强迫症患者在空间工作记忆、空间识别以及运动启动和执行方面的测量结果受损。相比之下，惊恐障碍或抑郁症患者在这些任务上的表现与对照组没有差异。在计划、认知速度、模式识别和延迟样本匹配测量方面，各组表现没有差异，但抑郁症患者在注意力集转换方面受损。
在强迫症患者中观察到了神经心理缺陷，而在匹配的惊恐障碍或单相抑郁症患者中未观察到。因此，强迫症中的认知功能障碍似乎与该疾病相关的特定病程有关。
