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Chronic medication does not affect hyperactive error responses in obsessive‐compulsive disorder
Author(s) -
Stern Emily R.,
Liu Yanni,
Gehring William J.,
Lister James J.,
Yin Gang,
Zhang Jun,
Fitzgerald Kate D.,
Himle Joseph A.,
Abelson James L.,
Taylor Stephan F.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2010.00988.x
Subject(s) - psychology , error related negativity , anxiety , depression (economics) , affect (linguistics) , obsessive compulsive , anxiety disorder , negativity effect , psychiatry , neurotransmitter , clinical psychology , audiology , cognition , developmental psychology , medicine , neuroscience , central nervous system , anterior cingulate cortex , communication , economics , macroeconomics
Patients with obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD) show an increased error‐related negativity (ERN), yet previous studies have not controlled for medication use, which may be important given evidence linking performance monitoring to neurotransmitter systems targeted by treatment, such as serotonin. In an examination of 19 unmedicated OCD patients, 19 medicated OCD patients, 19 medicated patient controls without OCD, and 21 unmedicated healthy controls, we found greater ERNs in OCD patients than in controls, irrespective of medication use. Severity of generalized anxiety and depression was associated with ERN amplitude in controls but not patients. These data confirm previous findings of an exaggerated error response in OCD, further showing that it cannot be attributed to medication. The absence in patients of a relationship between ERN amplitude and anxiety/depression, as was found in controls, suggests that elevated error signals in OCD may be disorder‐specific.