episodic memory in obsessive-compulsive disorder: comparison with healthy controls

Background: obsessive-compulsive disorder is identified by intrusive thoughts and related compulsive behaviors. memory complaints are controversial among obsessive-compulsive disorder patients. objectives: the present study compared verbal, visual, episodic, and semantic memory between obsessive-compulsive disorder patients and healthy controls. methods: this is a case-control study. the participants included 31 newly diagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder outpatients and 30 healthy controls. the patients were selected using targeted sampling from emam reza polyclinic, affiliated with blinded for peer review. they responded to a demographic checklist, structured clinical interview for dsm-iv (scid-i), verbal and visual episodic memory from the wechsler memory scale-revised (wms-r), and autobiographical memory interview (ami). results: the results indicated that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder compared with the controls had lower scores in visual (p = 0.0001), verbal (p = 0.006), semantic (p = 0.3), and episodic memory (p = 0.001). conclusions: all types of memory which were evaluated in the present study were impaired in obsessive-compulsive disorder. memory impairment might explain the psychiatric symptoms of the disorder.