Visuospatial memory in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Abstract

Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a clinically heterogeneous disorder. The previous studies have been conducted to elucidate visuospatial and nonverbal memory deficits in OCD patients. However, they did not reach equivocal results which need to be replicated. Objectives: The current study examines the visuospatial memory in male patients with OCD as compared to normal healthy controls. Materials and Methods: It is a cross-sectional hospital-based study, in which 15 OCD patients and 15 age-, sex-, and education-matched normal healthy controls were chosen by purposive sampling technique. All the participants underwent the Extended Complex Figure Test (ECFT) for the assessment of visuospatial memory. Results: Significant difference was found between OCD patients and normal healthy controls on various domains of ECFT. OCD patients performed poorly on copy condition (t = −4.46; P< 0.001), immediate recall (t = −5.20; P< 0.001), delayed recall (t = −5.18; P< 0.001), recognition task (P < 0.001), and matching task (P < 0.001) than the controls. Conclusion: Visuospatial memory was significantly impaired in OCD that included disturbed encoding and impaired visuospatial functioning. Hence, it is important to understand the significance of visuospatial memory in the pathophysiology for OCD diagnosis and therapeutic decision.