Neuropsychological profiles of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: early onset versus late onset

In this study, we assess the neuropsychological profiles of both early and late symptom-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients. The early and late-onset OCD patients are compared to the control group with a series of neuropsychological measurements. The late-onset OCD patients exhibited impaired performance on the immediate and the delayed recall conditions of the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (RCFT) and the letter and category fluency of the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWA), compared to the normal controls and the early-onset OCD patients. The controls and early-onset OCD patients did not differ on any of the neuropsychological measurements taken in this study. These results suggest that different neurophysiological mechanisms are in play in early and late-onset OCD patients, and age of onset can serve as a potential marker for the subtyping of OCD.