Participants were 28 outpatients with OCD, 21 individuals with GAD, and 30 matched healthy controls. Participants received the Ethical Sensitivity Scale Questionnaire (ESSQ), rating scales for clinical symptoms, a reversal learning task, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST).
We found higher ethical sensitivity scores in OCD compared with healthy controls in the case of generating interpretations and options and identifying the consequences of actions. Individuals with OCD displayed prolonged reaction times on probabilistic errors without shift and final reversal errors. Participants with GAD did not differ from healthy controls on the ESSQ, but they were slower on reversal learning relative to nonpatients. In OCD, reaction time on final reversal errors mediated the relationship between ethical sensitivity and compulsions. WCST performance was intact in OCD and GAD.
Small sample size, limited neuropsychological assessment, self-rating scale for ethical sensitivity.
Prolonged reaction time at switching reinforcement contingencies is related to increased ethical sensitivity in OCD. Slow affective switching may link ethical sensitivity and compulsions.