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Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology Advance Access originally published online on August 18, 2009
Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology 2009 24(6):585-598; doi:10.1093/arclin/acp052
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Executive Functions and the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: On the Importance of Subclinical Symptoms and Other Concomitant Factors

Marie-Josée Bédarda,*, Christian C. Joyala, Lucie Godbouta and Sophie Chantalb

a Department of Psychology, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada
b Hôpital de l'Enfant-Jésus du CHA de Québec, Québec, Canada

* Corresponding author at: Centre de Santé et de Services Sociaux de l'Énergie recherche, Clinique externe de psychiatrie, 1705, avenue Georges, Shawinigan, Québec, Canada G9N 2N1. Tel.: +1-819-536-7575. E-mail address: bedardma{at}uqtr.ca (M.-J. Bédard).


  Abstract

Although reviews concerning the neuropsychology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) put great emphasis on impaired executive functioning, the overall conclusions are notoriously divergent. The main goal of the present study was to use a battery of neuropsychological tasks to assess nine cognitive domains with a special focus on executive functions in 40 patients with OCD. A secondary objective was to examine the relationships between clinical or demographic variables and neuropsychological performances. The third goal was to separate executive functions in more homogeneous components to verify whether specific impairment might be found in persons with OCD. Confirming the main hypothesis, few neuropsychological differences emerged between the OCD and healthy participants when concomitant factors were controlled. Moreover, subclinical symptoms appeared to play a different and independent role on the cognitive results. Future studies should include more specific tasks of lower-order executive functions among persons with OCD to confirm this possibility.

Keywords Obsessive-compulsive disorder; Neuropsychology; Executive functions; Confounding factors; Depression; Anxiety

Accepted: July 21, 2009


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