Processing impairments in OCD: it is more than inhibition!

The study aimed to address a significant gap in the literature on inhibition impairments in OCD, by concurrently studying facilitation and inhibition processes and the effect of threat on these twin mechanisms. Participants were 20 persons with symptomatic OCD, 11 with remitted OCD, 20 with panic disorder and 20 normal control participants. Participants were required to respond to words that were either neutral or personally threatening, which during an immediately preceding trail, were responded to as targets (facilitation) or inhibited as non-targets (inhibition). OCD participants displayed greater facilitation and reduced inhibition, differences that were related to their diagnostic status but unrelated to symptomatic status. Threat had no effect on facilitation, but exacerbated inhibition problems in the symptomatic OCD and panic groups. This research suggests that underlying differences in both facilitation and inhibition, combined with influences of activated threat-schema on inhibition may play a role in the development and maintenance of OCD.