School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, New Zealand
Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK and Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Correspondence: Jessica Grisham, School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia 2052. Email: jgrisham{at}psy.unsw.edu.au
None.
The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit is supported by the New Zealand Health Research Council. This research was supported by grants from the US National Institute of Mental Health (MH 45070, MH49414), the UK Medical Research Council grant G0100527, and a Postdoctoral Fellowship with the School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales.
Background
Existing neuropsychological studies of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) are cross-sectional and do not provide evidence of whether deficits are trait-related (antecedent and independent of symptomatology) or state-related (a consequence, dependent on symptomatology).
Aims
To investigate whether there are premorbid neuropsychological deficits associated with adult OCD.
Method
Longitudinal data were collected from participants of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Developmental study. Neuropsychological data collected at age 13 were linked with age 32 diagnosis of OCD.
Results
The group who had OCD at age 32 differed significantly from the control group with no OCD on their performance at age 13 on neuropsychological tests of visuospatial, visuoconstructive and visuomotor skills, controlling for gender and socioeconomic status, but did not differ on tests of general IQ or verbal ability. Performance of the group with OCD on tests of executive functioning was mixed.
Conclusions
Individuals with OCD have premorbid impairment in visuospatial abilities and some forms of executive functioning, consistent with biological models of OCD.
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