Attentional Bias in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder : A Time Course Analysis
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Yeh, Hong-Yi
Abstract
Obsessive-compulsive disorder, also known as OCD, has two core symptoms, obsession and compulsion. The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics and course of attentional bias between different types of OCD, and compare the bias differences with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Participants in this study came from a mental illness hospital outpatients and community citizens. The patients with OCD or GAD were referred by a psychiatrist. There were a total of 50 participants, including 13 OCD with checking symptoms, 13 OCD with cleaning symptoms, 10 GAD, and 14 community citizens. Koster’s (2004) dot-probe task design and attentional bias index were adopted to measure two major attention mechanisms of the attentional bias, namely, attention vigilance and attention disengagement difficulty. With these two bias indices as the dependent variables, and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores as the covariate, a 4 (groups: OCD with checking symptoms, OCD with cleaning symptoms, GAD, general community citizens) × 3 (stimulus word: checking words, cleaning words, positive emotion words) × 3 (stimulus exposure time: 100 ms, 500 ms, 1000 ms) mixed factorial design was conducted. The results showed that when faced with the threat stimuli, OCD patients revealed vigilant attention bias in the short stimulus exposure time, then, turned to attention disengagement difficulty in the middle and long stimulus exposure time. In addition, there was similar course of attentional bias in the two subtypes of OCD when they faced threats in accordance with their core symptom-related stimuli, but for the non-core symptom-related stimuli, they showed different attention process. Besides, in face of positive stimulus words, there was different attentional bias course between the two groups. Only OCD with checking symptoms revealed vigilant attention bias in the short exposure time, and difficulty disengagement in the medium and long stimulus exposure time, while OCD with cleaning symptoms did not show vigilant attention bias or attention disengagement difficulties in any exposure time. In addition, OCD with checking symptoms and GAD had similar attentional bias course for positive stimuli words. The results of this study can be used to illustrate the homogeneity and heterogeneity of the core symptoms in the different types of OCD. By comparing attention bias between types of OCD and GAD, the results of the present study suggest some possibilities to develop clinical intervention strategies and treatment methods.
Subjects
obsessive-compulsive disorders
attention bias
dot-probe task
attention vigilance index
attention disengagement difficulty index
SDGs
Type
thesis
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