Journal
CNS SPECTRUMS
Volume 20, Issue 5, Pages 490-499Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/S1092852914000662
Keywords
Cognitive flexibility deficits; compulsive personality disorder; executive planning deficits; obsessive; overlapping with disorder criteria; reclassification of OCPD
Categories
Funding
- Jannsen
- European College of Neuropsychopharmacology
- UK Medical Research Council
- UK National Institute of Health Research
- British Association for Psychopharmacology
- World Health Organization
- College of Mental Health Pharmacists
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Background. Obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is characterized by perfectionism, need for control, and cognitive rigidity. Currently, little neuropsychological data exist on this condition, though emerging evidence does suggest that disorders marked by compulsivity, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), are associated with impairment in cognitive flexibility and executive planning on neurocognitive tasks. Aim. The current study investigated the neurocognitive profile in a nonclinical community-based sample of people fulfilling diagnostic criteria for OCPD in the absence of major psychiatric comorbidity. Method. Twenty-one nonclinical subjects who fulfilled Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) criteria for OCPD were compared with 15 healthy controls on selected clinical and neurocognitive tasks. OCPD was measured using the Compulsive Personality Assessment Scale (CPAS). Participants completed tests from the Cambridge Automated Neuropsychological Test Battery including tests of set shifting (Intra-Extra Dimensional [IED] Set Shifting) executive planning (Stockings of Cambridge [SOC]), and decision making (Cambridge Gamble Task [CGT]). Results. The OCPD group made significantly more IED-ED shift errors and total shift errors, and also showed longer mean initial thinking time on the SOC at moderate levels of difficulty. No differences emerged on the CGT. Conclusions. Nonclinical cases of OCPD showed significant cognitive inflexibility coupled with executive planning deficits, whereas decision-making remained intact. This profile of impairment overlaps with that of OCD and implies that common neuropsychological changes affect individuals with these disorders.
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