Objectives:

The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes of cognitive dysfunctions in patients with obsessivecompulsive disorder (OCD) over the two-year of pharmacological treatment.

Methods:

The thirty-three OCD patients and thirteen normal subjects were administered the neuropsychological tests and clinical evaluations twice (at the baseline and two-year).

Results:

In spite of the two-year treatment, the accuracy of delayed recall on the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Tests (RCFT), the numbers of responses on the category and letter test of Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWA), the response time on the Trail Making Test part A (TMT-A) remained significantly impaired in the OCD patients compared with the normal controls.

Conclusion:

These findings suggest that the cognitive dysfunctions such as visuospatial memory and verbal fluency might be the underlying persisting neuropathophysiology of OCD. (J Korean Neuropsychiatr Assoc 2004;43(5):577-582)