Obsessional Personality Disorder and Remembering

Abstract

Patients suffering from obsessional personality disorder (anankasts) have been described as possessing 'superior memories', because of the detailed precision of their accounts. At the same time, such classical phenomena as doubt, checking and rumination imply faulty recall. This paradox is discussed, and some predictions drawn from a hypothesis regarding the cognitive charactteristics of obsessional disorder. Findings are presented which indicate that, by comparison with matched psychiatric controls, anankasts do not excel in the long-term recall of factual information or meaningful anecdotal material. But they show the following mnemonic features: (a) Superiority of immediate memory span, reflecting high levels of attention. (b) Superior recall of ambiguous anecdotal material, reflecting a tendency to the pointless 'rehearsal' of such material. (c) Weak redintegration in personal reminiscence. It is suggested that anankasts' doubts about their remembering refer not so much to the correctness of what is being recalled as to the quality of the recalling itself.

Visual Memory Impairment in Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Controlled Study

“…This finding of an impaired verbal memory in compulsive checkers was not replicated by a second sample [10], A study [32] on memory for actions in OCD showed that obsessivecompulsive subjects have difficulties in the storage and restitution phases and not in the acquisition phase. This result is in line with Reed's [7] study, which places the OCD mem ory deficit at the reintegration stage of memo ry.…”

“…Controlled studies showed the positive effect of behavioral therapy, cogni tive therapy and pharmacological treatment with serotonergic antidepressants [1,2], Sev eral studies reported cognitive dysfunction disturbances which could be related to abnor malities in prefrontal, caudate and cingulate areas suggesting a complex information pro cessing alteration [3][4][5][6]. Alterations in memo ry performance have been reported in four studies [7][8][9][10] but their results are not conver-gent. Methodological problems may explain these discrepancies.…”

“…Methodological problems may explain these discrepancies. One study had no normal control group [7] and three included nonclinical or subclinical checkers [8][9][10].…”

Selective Alleviation of Compulsive Lever-Pressing in Rats by D1, but not D2, Blockade: Possible Implications for the Involvement of D1 Receptors in Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder

“…The model was developed on the basis of two assumptions made with regard to obsessions and compulsions: (1) they are an exaggeration of normal thoughts and behaviors (Pitman, 1989;Rasmussen and Eisen, 1992;Reed, 1985), and (2) they result from a failure to cease responding following the successful completion of an action owing to a deficient response feedback mechanism (eg Baxter, 1999;Gray, 1982;Malloy, 1987;Pitman, 1991;Reed, 1977;Otto, 1990Otto, , 1992.…”

Signal Attenuation as a Rat Model of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

“…The theoretical assumption behind the model is that a deficit in the feedback associated with a successful performance of goal-directed behaviors leads to compulsive responses [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] . The model, developed by Joel and colleagues 28 , is based on operant behavior in rats.…”