Study of Attention in Children and Adolescents with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder their First-Degree Relatives and Healthy Controls

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common, heritable and disabling neuropsychiatric disorder.Evidence from cognitive and neuro imaging studies (functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET)) have generally been taken to be supportive of these theoretical models; however, results from these studies have not been entirely congruent with each other. Attempts have been made to delineate genetic contributions in OCD with an ongoing search for neurocognitive end opheno types but have met with limited success. In this study, we attempted to study andcompare the attentional property of patient swith OCD, their first-degree relatives (FDRs) and healthy controls. A cross-sectional design study was carried out with eight patients (age 11-16 yrs.), their eight siblings andeight age matched healthy controls who were screen edusing GHQ-12. As part of this assessment, we administered Stroop Colour Word Test on affected children and adolescents with OCD, their non-affected siblings and normal control. SPSS version 20.0 was used for data analysis. The patients with OCD performed worse than their FDRs as well as from the normal control group on test assessing attention, (P > 0.01). Studyrevealed deficits in attention, and supported the involvement of responsibility of fronto-striatal loop in OCD. The present study reveals attention in OCD is impaired.