Abstract
This systematic review and meta-analysis updates evidence pertaining to deficient response inhibition in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) as measured by the stop-signal task (SST). We conducted a meta-analysis of the literature to compare response inhibition in patients with OCD and healthy controls, meta-regressions to determine relative influences of age and sex on response inhibition impairment, and a risk of bias assessment for included studies using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Stop-signal reaction time (SSRT), which estimates the latency of the stopping process deficit, was significantly longer in OCD samples than in controls, reflecting inferior inhibitory control (Raw mean difference = 23.43ms; p = <0.001; 95% CI = [17.42, 29.45]). We did not observe differences in mean reaction time (MRT) in OCD compared to controls (Raw mean difference = 2.51ms; p = 0.755; 95% CI = [−13.27, 18.30]). Age impacted effect size of SSRT, indicating a greater deficit in older patients than younger ones. We did not observe a significant effect of sex on SSRT or MRT scores.
General Scientific Summary Difficulty inhibiting responses is an hypothesized deficit in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The results of this systematic review and meta-analysis of studies using the Stop Signal Task support the notion of deficient response inhibition in OCD and indicate that older individuals with OCD show greater impairments than younger ones.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
Author Note, Kendall Mar is now at the University of Toronto, Department of Psychology.
All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. The authors wish to thank Quenby Mahood for assistance in the literature search strategy. The manuscript has been pre-registered online prior to peer review through PROSPERO (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=212770).
The results of this manuscript represent original work that has not been previously disseminated. This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research [R.J.S., MOP□93696 and P.D.A., MOP□106573], the TD Bank Financial Group Chair in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (R.J.S.), and the Alberta Innovates Translational Health Chair in Child and Youth Mental Health (P.D.A.).
