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Related Experiment Videos

Thought suppression in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

David F Tolin1, Jonathon S Abramowitz, Amy Przeworski

  • 1Anxiety Disorders Center, The Institute of Living, 200 Retreat Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106, USA. dtolin@harthosp.org

Behaviour Research and Therapy
|October 18, 2002
PubMed
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Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) struggle with thought suppression, experiencing more intrusive thoughts when trying to suppress them. This study reveals a specific cognitive deficit in OCD, impacting thought control and potentially explaining repetitive obsessions.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Clinical Psychology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Thought suppression attempts can paradoxically increase thought frequency.
  • This phenomenon is key in cognitive-behavioral models of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
  • Empirical evidence for deficient thought suppression in OCD patients is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if individuals with OCD exhibit a deficit in thought suppression ability.
  • To explore the cognitive mechanisms underlying intrusive thoughts in OCD.
  • To differentiate thought suppression ability between OCD patients and control groups.

Main Methods:

  • Experiment 1: Assessed self-reported thought frequency during attempted suppression in OCD patients (OCs), nonanxious controls (NACs), and anxious controls (ACs).

Related Experiment Videos

  • Experiment 2: Employed a lexical decision paradigm to measure priming strength of target words under thought suppression conditions, mitigating self-report bias.
  • Utilized controlled experimental designs to isolate the effects of thought suppression.

    • Main Results:

    • OCs showed a paradoxical increase in self-reported thoughts when attempting suppression, unlike NACs and ACs.
    • Lexical decision tasks confirmed this paradoxical effect in OCs, indicated by decreased latency for suppressed thoughts.
    • Non-OCD groups did not exhibit this paradoxical thought suppression effect.

    Conclusions:

    • Individuals with OCD demonstrate a deficit in cognitive inhibitory processes related to thought suppression.
    • This suppression deficit may contribute to the intrusive and repetitive nature of obsessions in OCD.
    • Findings support the role of impaired cognitive control in the psychopathology of OCD.