Wisconsin card sorting test performance in obsessive-compulsive disorder: no evidence for involvement of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Abstract
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) performances were studied in 33 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and 33 age-, sex-, and education-matched normal comparison subjects; the OCD patients were divided into four subgroups on the basis of their symptomatology. Neither the two groups of subjects nor the four OCD subgroups differed on any of the WCST neuropsychological indices. No relationship was demonstrated between test performance and clinical-epidemiological characteristics of the OCD patients. All of the OCD patients were being treated with fluvoxamine maleate, which improves OCD symptoms and could also improve WCST performances. Nevertheless, no remarkable differences in the WCST indices were observed in patients treated with fluvoxamine when compared with patients who had not received a specific therapy for at least 3 weeks. Since the WCST is widely considered sensitive to dysfunction of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, our results do not support the involvement of that brain region in OCD.
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Tasks that measure flexibility and set-shifting, like the WCST, may be suitable to measure compulsivity.
“These findings indicate that tasks that measure flexibility and set-shifting, like the WCST, may be suitable to measure compulsivity.”
From Neurocognitive function among individuals with problematic social media use (2026) · cites this paper as [14]
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“OCD patients showed no impairment in performance on the WCST, and no differences in WCST performance were observed in patients with OCD who were treated with fl uvoxamine compared with non-treated patients (14).”
- Authors
- Abbruzzese, M., Ferri, S., & Scarone, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Milan (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Abbruzzese, Massimo
- ORCID
- Scarone, Silvio
- Venue
- Psychiatry Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1995-09
- Volume
- 58
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 37-43
- ISSN
- 0165-1781 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2119185387
- Cited by
- 138
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 1.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychiatry Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- obsessive-compulsive disorder, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, executive function, fluvoxamine, neuropsychological performance, symptom subtypes, treatment response
- MeSH terms
- Attention, Discrimination Learning, Female, Humans, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Problem Solving, Anti-Anxiety Agents, Fluvoxamine, Prefrontal Cortex, Neurocognitive Disorders
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