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Do pathological gambling and obsessive-compulsive disorder overlap? a neurocognitive perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2012

Ji-Won Hur
Affiliation:
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Institute of Human Behavioral Medicine, Seoul National University Medical Research Center, Seoul, Korea
Na young Shin
Affiliation:
Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Institute of Human Behavioral Medicine, Seoul National University Medical Research Center, Seoul, Korea
Sung Nyun Kim
Affiliation:
Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Institute of Human Behavioral Medicine, Seoul National University Medical Research Center, Seoul, Korea Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Joon Hwan Jang
Affiliation:
Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Institute of Human Behavioral Medicine, Seoul National University Medical Research Center, Seoul, Korea Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Jung-Seok Choi
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Seoul Metropolitan Government-Seoul National University Boramae Medical Center, Seoul, Korea
Young-Chul Shin
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Jun Soo Kwon*
Affiliation:
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Institute of Human Behavioral Medicine, Seoul National University Medical Research Center, Seoul, Korea Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
*
*Address for correspondence: Jun Soo Kwon, MD, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 101 Daehak-no, Chongno-gu, Seoul, Korea. (Email kwonjs@snu.ac.kr)
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Abstract

Objective

Pathological gambling (PG) is a severe and persistent pattern of problem gambling that has been aligned with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, no study has compared the neurocognitive profiles of individuals with PG and OCD.

Methods

We compared neurocognitive functioning, including executive function, verbal learning and memory, and visual–spatial organization and memory among 16 pathological gamblers, 31 drug-naïve OCD subjects, and 52 healthy controls.

Results

The only neurocognitive marker common to both groups was increased fragmentation errors on the Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCF). The PG subjects showed increased nonperseverative error on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and organization difficulties in the ROCF, whereas the OCD subjects revealed longer response times on the Stroop test and retention difficulties on the immediate recall scale of the ROCF.

Conclusions

A more careful approach is required in considering whether PG is a part of the OCD spectrum, as little evidence of neurocognitive overlap between PG and OCD has been reported.

Information

Type
Original Research
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012
Figure 0

Table 1 Demographic and clinical characteristics of pathological gambling, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and healthy control groups

Figure 1

Table 2 Mean scores and standard deviation of neurocognitive test in pathological gambling, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and healthy control groups

Figure 2

Figure 1 Z-scores of the differences between the OCD and PG group on neurocognitive performances. PG, subject with pathological gambling; OCD, subject with obsessive-compulsive disorder; HC, healthy controls. The z-scores were calculated based on the mean ± SD of the HC group. Plus/minus signs of some of variables were reversed to adjust the severity profile in the graph. Abbreviations as in Table 2. *OCD < HC, **PG < HC, ***OCD = PG < HC.