Comparing attentional control and intrusive thoughts in obsessive-compulsive disorder,generalized anxiety disorder and non clinical population

Objective: attention is an important factor in information processing; obsessive-compulsive disorder (ocd) and generalized anxiety disorder (gad) are two main emotional disorders with a chronic course. this research examined the relationship among attentional control and intrusive thoughts (worry,rumination and obsession) in these disorders. it was hypothesized that attentional control is a common factor in ocd and gad. in addition,we compared worry,rumination and obsession among ocd,gad and non-clinical participants. method: the research sample included three groups: ocd (n = 25),gad (n = 30) and non-clinical samples (n = 56). data were collected using the attentional control scale (acs),rumination response scale (rrs),pennsylvania state worry questionnaire (pswq),beck depression inventory (bdi),beck anxiety inventory (bai),obsessive-compulsive inventory-revised (oci-r) and general health questionnaire (ghq-28). data were analyzed using manova and mancova by spss-17. result: multivariate analysis of variance revealed that the ocd and gad groups reported greater deficits in attentional control,higher obsessive-compulsive symptoms,rumination,worry,anxiety and depression compared to the control group. conclusion: this research indicated a great attentional deficit in obsessive-compulsive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. however,no significant difference was found between these two disorders.