There is indirect evidence from previous research that several executive disturbances in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are mediated by comorbid depressive symptoms. For the present study, the authors investigated whether OCD patients with elevated Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) scores would exhibit deficits in tasks sensitive to the medial and dorsolateral frontal cortex as well as other executive tasks. The 36 OCD patients were split along the median according to their HRSD scores and compared with matched control subjects. Patients with high HRSD scores performed significantly worse than control subjects and patients with low HRSD scores on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, the Trail-Making Test (TMT, Part B), and the TMT difference score. Moreover, patients with high HRSD scores exhibited deficits on a (creative) verbal fluency task. It is suggested that comorbid depressive symptoms may have artificially inflated some executive deficit scores in previous studies.

Background: Attitudes of medical students form the basis for medical actions. Because of the specific characteristics of psychiatric patients, positive attitudes of medical students towards psychiatry should be a higher goal in medical education. Aim: We hypothesize that medical students in different educational programs develop different attitudes towards psychiatry. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, students enrolled in different educational programs completed the 'attitudes towards psychiatry' questionnaire (ATP-30). Data concerning experiences in psychiatry, personality traits and socio-demographic variables including gender were also analyzed. Results: The response rate of students in the PBL-curriculum (n ¼ 61) was >90%, in the traditional curriculum (n ¼ 280) >75%. Attitudes towards psychiatry of male students in the Problem-Based Learning program were equal to the female students' attitudes in both programs. Female students' attitudes in the traditional curriculum reached comparably good results while male students' displayed the worst attitudes.The personality factors 'openness to experience' and 'agreeableness' correlated significantly with positive attitudes towards psychiatry. PBL-students showed significantly more 'openness to experience'. Conclusion: Educational programs might play a role for the development of attitudes towards psychiatry, especially in male students. Factors influencing enrollment into special educational programs should also have been taken into account. An independent study with a larger number of participants will be required to support these findings.

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