Effects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Memory and Metamemory in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

Pathological doubt in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) suggests core deficits in memory and metamemory, but the nature of these deficits and their response to treatment remain unclear. This study aimed to address this gap by investigating (a) whether memory and metamemory problems in OCD are due to retrieval or encoding processes, and (b) the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on these functions. Sixty OCD patients and 60 matched healthy controls completed 3 episodic memory tasks involving different stimuli, with assessments of judgment-of-learning and feeling-of-knowing. OCD patients then completed a 10-week CBT intervention and were reassessed post-CBT and at 6-month follow-up. At baseline, OCD patients showed significantly lower memory and metamemory performance than controls. Following the intervention, they demonstrated significant improvements in clinical symptoms, memory, and metamemory, which were maintained at follow-up. The findings suggest that OCD-related memory and metamemory impairments involve both encoding and retrieval processes and that CBT is an effective treatment for improving both clinical and cognitive outcomes.