ABSTRACT
Background and Objectives: OCD is one of the most debilitating psychiatric conditions with complex etiopathological profile causing interference with a wide range of social and cognitive demands. NeuroPsychological and neuro-imaging studies on OCD patients have implicated that the frontal cortex andsubcortical structures are involved in this disorder and testing has revealed evidence of impairment in visuospatial abilities, non-verbal memory and executive function. To evaluate cognitive impairment in ObsessiveCompulsive Disorder patients.Methods: Thirty patients who presented to Psychiatry Department of Dayanand Medical College andHospital, Ludhiana with diagnosis of OCD as per ICD-10 were taken up for the study. Cognitive impairmentwas assessed using PGI brain dysfunction battery designed for Indian population by Dwarka Pershad andSantosh K. Verma (3rd edition 2015). PGI brain dysfunction battery is a measure of cognitive impairmentconsisting of: Verbal Adult intelligence scale, Revised Bhatia short battery of performance tests ofintelligence, PGI memory scale, Nahor Benson test, Bender Visuo-Motor Gestalt test. Those patients whohad any major medical disorder or any other Psychiatry disorder on AXIS-I were excluded from the study.Results: In the present study, dysfunction was noticed in areas of immediate recall ,abstract thinking,arithmetical ability in verbal intelligence subscale and in visuo-motor coordination. These all areas areexecutive functions of frontal lobe. This shows that OCD patients are having difficulty in calculations dueto interference of the obsessive symptoms, though their attention and concentration were found intact.Visuo-motor coordination problem may be due to compulsive tendency due to which overlap, perseverationand partial rotation were found dysfunctional.Conclusion: Since OCD is highly distressing to the patient, the superadded cognitive dysfunctions such asmemory impairment, abstract thinking, impairment in visuo-motor coordination further worsens theoutcome of the illness. So, early identification of these dysfunctions would provide considerable benefit tothe patients.