Antisaccade Performance in Adolescent Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Evidence from a Familial-Risk Design

This study aimed to compare antisaccade performance among adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), their unaffected siblings, and healthy controls, and to examine whether this performance may serve as a candidate familial-risk marker for OCD. The study included 48 adolescents aged 12-18 years with OCD, 35 unaffected siblings, and 39 healthy controls. Participants completed an antisaccade task using an eye-tracking device. Antisaccade correct response rate and latency were evaluated as the primary outcomes, whereas saccadic velocity was examined as an exploratory measure of oculomotor execution. The OCD group showed lower antisaccade correct response rate and longer latency compared with healthy controls, whereas the sibling group demonstrated intermediate performance. Exploratory analyses identified statistically significant group differences in mean saccadic velocity; however, this finding should be interpreted cautiously. Regression analyses indicated that both OCD diagnosis and sibling status were independently associated with antisaccade correct response rate and latency, whereas findings for saccadic velocity should be considered exploratory. These findings suggest that impairments in antisaccade performance may not be specific to OCD but may also be present, albeit to a milder extent, in unaffected siblings, providing preliminary evidence supporting antisaccade performance as a candidate familial-risk marker for OCD that warrants further investigation within an endophenotype framework.