Episodic Memory in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Comparison with Healthy Controls

Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder is identified by intrusive thoughts and related compulsive behaviors. Memory complaints are controversial among obsessive-compulsive disorder patients. Objectives: The present study compared verbal, visual, episodic, and semantic memory between obsessive-compulsive disorder patients and healthy controls. Methods: This is a case-control study. The participants included 31 newly diagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder outpatients and 30 healthy controls. The patients were selected using targeted sampling from Emam Reza Polyclinic, affiliated with blinded for peer review. They responded to a demographic checklist, structured clinical interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I), verbal and visual episodic memory from the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R), and autobiographical memory interview (AMI). Results: The results indicated that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder compared with the controls had lower scores in visual (P = 0.0001), verbal (P = 0.006), semantic (P = 0.3), and episodic memory (P = 0.001). Conclusions: All types of memory which were evaluated in the present study were impaired in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Memory impairment might explain the psychiatric symptoms of the disorder.