Karen Hansen

Obsessive-compulsive Disorder Karen Hansen

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common psychiatric illness characterized by recurrent, intrusive thoughts and repetitive, stereotyped behaviors. Research suggests that OCD is associated with specific deficits related to organizing and manipulating information in working memory and with certain pre-morbid personality traits. However, further research is needed to elucidate whether these findings are specific to OCD or are present in other anxiety disorders and/or individuals with sub-clinical levels of obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms. In this research, OCD patients are compared to patients with panic disorder, subjects with sub-clinical OC symptoms and healthy control subjects on tests of wor­king memory and a measure of normal personality traits. Overall, OCD patients showed impairment on cognitive tasks requiring the organi­zation and manipulation of information in working memory. The OCD patients also differed from the other experimental groups on a measure of normal personality traits. The results have implications for sub-clinical OC research and the clinical management of OCD.