Planning and problem solving across multiple psychiatric disorders in young adults

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Executive functioning, including planning and problem-solving, is crucial for daily life and treatment outcomes.
• The transdiagnostic nature of planning-specific deficits across psychiatric disorders is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether planning and problem-solving deficits are a transdiagnostic feature in young adults with psychiatric disorders.
• To compare planning and problem-solving performance between individuals with various psychiatric diagnoses and healthy controls.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study assessed 658 young adults (aged 18-29) using the One Touch Stocking of Cambridge (OTS) task.
• Outcomes included accuracy (problems solved correctly on first choice) and latency (mean time to correct response).
• Psychiatric diagnoses were confirmed via structured clinical interviews; performance was compared using z-scores and Cohen's d.

Main Results:

• Individuals with psychiatric diagnoses generally showed impaired planning and problem-solving compared to controls.
• Significant accuracy deficits were observed in obsessive-compulsive disorder and trichotillomania.
• Moderate deficits were noted in agoraphobia, gambling disorder, panic disorder, antisocial personality disorder, compulsive buying disorder, substance abuse, and borderline personality disorder.

Conclusions:

• Planning and problem-solving impairments appear to be present across several psychiatric disorders.
• Further research should explore the influence of comorbidities and psychoactive substances on these cognitive profiles.