Differences in response inhibition between medication-free patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder with and...

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a heterogeneous disorder, and approximately 70% of patients with OCD experience sensory phenomena (SP). Previous studies have revealed that patients with OCD exhibit a deficit in response inhibition (RI). However, few studies have investigated the relationship between SP and RI in patients with OCD. This study aimed to investigate differences in RI between non-comorbid, medication-free patients with OCD with and without SP. Thirty-seven patients with OCD with SP (OCD + SP), 27 without SP (OCD-noSP), and 50 controls (HCs) were compared in terms of RI using the stop-signal task. Both OCD groups had a deficit in RI compared with HCs, and no difference in RI was found between the OCD + SP and OCD-noSP groups. No correlation was observed between SP and stop-signal reaction time in the OCD + SP group. Our findings suggest that a deficit in RI is not related to SP in OCD.