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The American Journal of Psychiatry, VOL. 157, No. 7

Letter to the Editor | July 01, 2000

Cognitive Deficits in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

CARY R. SAVAGE , PH.D.; SCOTT L. RAUCH , M.D.

Am J Psychiatry 2000;157:1182-1182. 10.1176/appi.ajp.157.7.1182

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We read with interest a recent article by Sue R. Beers, Ph.D., and colleagues (1) examining neuropsychological functioning in children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). They found that children with OCD performed normally on a number of measures of executive functioning, including many previously shown to be impaired in adults with OCD. As noted by the authors, previous studies have documented that children with OCD already show abnormalities in frontal and striatal volumes in relation to comparison subjects. One explanation for these findings is that cognitive deficits emerge during the course of development in a manner that parallels the normal maturation of prefrontal systems.

Neuropsychological investigations of adults with OCD show impairment on complex measures of executive functioning and strategic memory. These problems may not be apparent in childhood because normal children do not have fully matured prefrontal networks and, consequently, show less developed executive functioning. Many executive and memory functions, including sustained attention, planning, problem solving, and semantic organization, show the greatest progression after age 12 (2, 3). There is also evidence that cognitive problems secondary to childhood brain injury may not become apparent until adolescence, when these abilities develop in normal children (4).

This concept might also be extended to the clinical phenomenology of OCD in different age groups. Comorbid illnesses, such as Tourette’s syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, often appear years before the onset of actual OCD symptoms (5). In these cases, the emergence of OCD symptoms closely parallels the normal development of frontal lobe systems and executive functioning. The symptomatic expression of OCD also differs in children and adults, with children showing higher rates of compulsive rituals without clearly delineated obsessions. It is possible that a certain level of frontal system development is actually necessary to manifest some characteristic symptoms of OCD. For example, albeit dysfunctional, the capacity to obsess may require adequate working memory to maintain thoughts continually in awareness.

For these reasons, some neuropsychological and clinical symptoms of OCD may not emerge until critical prefrontal systems mature—perhaps not until adolescence or later. We applaud this interesting work by Dr. Beers and colleagues. Future investigations following such well-characterized cohorts longitudinally may clarify the way in which cognitive deficits and clinical symptoms of OCD evolve over the course of development.

References

Beers SR, Rosenberg DR, Dick EL, Williams T, O’Hearn KM, Birmaher B, Ryan CM: Neuropsychological study of frontal lobe function in psychotropic-naive children with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Am J Psychiatry 1999; 156:777–779[PubMed]

Levin HS, Culhane KA, Hartmann J, Evankovich K, Mattson AJ, Harward H, Ringholz G, Ewing-Cobbs L, Fletcher JM: Developmental changes in performance on tests of purported frontal lobe functioning. Dev Neuropsychol 1991; 7:377–395[CrossRef]

McKay KE, Halperin JM, Schwartz ST, Sharma V: Developmental analysis of three aspects of information processing: sustained attention, selective attention, and response organization. Dev Neuropsychol 1994; 10:121–132[CrossRef]

Eslinger PJ, Grattan LM, Damasio H, Damasio AR: Developmental consequences of childhood frontal lobe damage. Arch Neurol 1992; 49:764–769[PubMed]

Geller DA: Juvenile onset obsessive-compulsive disorder, in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders: Practical Management. Edited by Jenike MA, Baer L, Minichiello WE. St Louis, Mosby, 1998, pp 44–64

Eslinger PJ, Grattan LM, Damasio H, Damasio AR: Developmental consequences of childhood frontal lobe damage. Arch Neurol 1992; 49:764–769[PubMed]

Geller DA: Juvenile onset obsessive-compulsive disorder, in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders: Practical Management. Edited by Jenike MA, Baer L, Minichiello WE. St Louis, Mosby, 1998, pp 44–64

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CARY R. SAVAGE, SCOTT L. RAUCH; Cognitive Deficits in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2000 Jul;157(7):1182-1182.

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