Dissociable source-monitoring impairments in obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia

Based on the observed clinical overlap between obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and schizophrenia (SCZ), both conditions may share, at least in part, common cognitive underpinnings. Among the cognitive deficits that could be involved, it has been hypothesized that patients share a failure in their abilities to monitor their own thoughts (source monitoring), leading to confusion between what they actually did or perceived and what they imagined. Although little is known regarding source-monitoring performances in patients with OCD, numerous studies in patients with SCZ have observed a relationship between delusions and/or hallucinations and deficits in both internal source- and reality-monitoring abilities.

The present work compared source-monitoring performances (internal source and reality monitoring) between patients with OCD (n = 32), patients with SCZ (n = 38), and healthy controls (HC; n = 29).

We observed that patients with OCD and patients with SCZ displayed abnormal internal source-monitoring abilities compared to HC. Only patients with SCZ displayed abnormalities in reality monitoring compared to both patients with OCD and HC.

Internal source-monitoring deficits are shared by patients with OCD and SCZ and may contribute to the shared cognitive deficits that lead to obsessions and delusions. In contrast, reality-monitoring performance seems to differentiate patients with OCD from patients with SCZ.