Disgust recognition in obsessive-compulsive disorder: diagnostic comparisons and posttreatment effects

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether disgust recognition deficits are present and specific to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and the extent to which this deficit, if present, can be reduced in cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT).

Method: Responses to the Pictures of Facial Affect (POFA) were examined in patients with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, diagnosed OCD (n = 20), panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA; n = 15), and generalized social phobia (GSP; n = 15) and a second, independent OCD sample of treatment responders to CBT (n = 11).

Results: There were significant and statistically large disgust recognition differences between the OCD group and comparison PDA and GSP groups. However, patients with OCD treated with CBT showed disgust recognition scores that were equivalent to the PDA and GSP groups, significantly better than the untreated OCD sample, and equivalent to scores from the original POFA nonaffected standardization sample.

Conclusions: These results provide support for the presence of disgust recognition impairment in OCD, and provide preliminary evidence that disgust recognition impairments may improve with treatment.