Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the most common psychiatric chronic disorders (prevalence 2–3%) and has been associated with various neurocognitive impairment, including visual memory function. Although the relapse rate of OCD is highly considerable, little is known regarding the relationship between neurocognitive dysfunction and the chronicity of the illness, mainly because there are confounding factors as the medication effect. Therefore, we compared the difference of neurocognitive functions of the first-episode, medication-naive OCD patents to chronic, medication-naïve OCD patients.

We defined the first-episode (FEOCD) if the illness duration was less than 3-year by DSM-IV criteria. Twenty-one FEOCD and 28 chronic OCD patients performed Korean version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (K-WAIS), the Trail Making Test (TMT). All the participants were medication-naïve.

There was no differences in the severity of illness (YBOCS), depressive symptoms (Hamilton depression rating scale), general anxiety symptoms (Hamilton anxiety rating scale). FEOCD group showed significant impairment on the block design subtest of the K-WAIS (P = 0.04, t = 1.294).

These results suggest that visual spatial cognitive dysfunction in patients with OCD may deteriorate as the untreated duration of illness get longer.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.