Directed forgetting in obsessive-compulsive disorder

We tested whether patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are characterized by dysfunction in the ability to forget disturbing material. Employing a directed forgetting procedure, we presented OCD patients and healthy control subjects with a series of negative, positive, and neutral words, and instructed them either to remember or to forget each item after it was presented. Subjects received free recall and recognition tests for all words, regardless of instructions. Orthogonal planned contrasts indicated that OCD patients exhibited deficits in the ability to forget negative material relative to positive and neutral material, whereas control subjects did not. Additional analyses suggested that OCD patients elaboratively encoded negative words, regardless of instructions, thereby enhancing their memorability.