title: Obsessive-compulsive disorder is associated with broad impairments in executive function: A meta-analysis.
abstract: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a serious and often chronically disabling condition. The current dominant model of OCD focuses on abnormalities in prefrontal-striatal circuits that support executive function (EF). While there is growing evidence for EF impairments associated with OCD, results have been inconsistent, making the nature and magnitude of these impairments controversial. The current meta-analysis uses random-effects models to synthesize 110 previous studies that compared participants with OCD to healthy control participants on at least one neuropsychological measure of EF. The results indicate that individuals with OCD are impaired on tasks measuring most aspects of EF, consistent with broad impairment in EF. EF deficits were not explained by general motor slowness or depression. Effect sizes were largely stable across variation in demographic and clinical characteristics of samples, although medication use, age, and gender moderated some effects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Denver, Frontier Hall, 2155 S. Race St. Denver, CO 80208, USA.
authors.forename: Hannah R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Snyder
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA 02478, USA.
authors.forename: Roselinde H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, St. Louis VA Medical Center, #1 Jefferson Barracks Drive, 116B/JB, St. Louis, MO 63125, USA.
authors.forename: Stacie L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Warren
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 603 E. Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820, USA.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Heller
keywords: executive function; meta-analysis; obsessive-compulsive disorder