title: Inhibition deficit in OCD patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) suffer from intrusive thoughts, which are assumed to be due to diminished inhibitory processes. The spatial cueing task indicates that a deficit in the inhibition of return (IOR) can be used as a marker for inhibitory deficits.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present study served to replicate previous findings with this task in OCD patients and, additionally, to control for the effects of the probability of valid cues. A supplementary experiment with phobic patients served to test the specificity of these effects. The task was performed in two versions: with equal and with unequal probability of valid and invalid cues.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No IOR was observed in the task with unequal probability of valid and invalid cues. An IOR did occur in the task with equal probability, but it was not generally diminished in OCD patients, but depended on the visual hemifield of the stimulus. IOR in patients with specific phobias was not affected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The negative result may be due to the relative small sample size.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results do not support the notion of generally diminished inhibitory process in OCD patients, but only lateralized effects. They further indicate that a reliable IOR is only visible in a spatial cueing task with equal probability of valid and invalid cues.
authors.affiliation: University of Düsseldorf, Institute of Experimental Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lehnen
authors.affiliation: University of Düsseldorf, Institute of Experimental Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology, Düsseldorf, Germany. Electronic address: pietrows@hhu.de.
authors.forename: Reinhard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pietrowsky
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009770:Obsessive Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014796:Visual Perception
keywords: Inhibition of return; Inhibitory processes; OCD; Phobia