Do pathological gambling and obsessive-compulsive disorder overlap? a neurocognitive perspective.
OBJECTIVE
Pathological gambling (PG) is a severe and persistent pattern of problem gambling that has been aligned with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, no study has compared the neurocognitive profiles of individuals with PG and OCD.


METHODS
We compared neurocognitive functioning, including executive function, verbal learning and memory, and visual-spatial organization and memory among 16 pathological gamblers, 31 drug-naïve OCD subjects, and 52 healthy controls.


RESULTS
The only neurocognitive marker common to both groups was increased fragmentation errors on the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCF). The PG subjects showed increased nonperseverative error on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and organization difficulties in the ROCF, whereas the OCD subjects revealed longer response times on the Stroop test and retention difficulties on the immediate recall scale of the ROCF.


CONCLUSIONS
A more careful approach is required in considering whether PG is a part of the OCD spectrum, as little evidence of neurocognitive overlap between PG and OCD has been reported.
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
Ji-Won
JW
Hur
Na young
Ny
Shin
Sung Nyun
SN
Kim
Joon Hwan
JH
Jang
Jung-Seok
JS
Choi
Young-Chul
YC
Shin
Jun Soo
JS
Kwon
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D014706:Verbal Learning; D055815:Young Adult