Cognitive disengagement syndrome symptoms in obsessive-compulsive disorder with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Comorbidity between Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) appears complex in terms of etiology, phenomenology, and treatment. There is a need to identify possible factors which are related to the co-occurrence of OCD and ADHD in adults. Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome (CDS) may contribute to this comorbidity through its associations with ADHD, emotional dysregulation, cognitive processes, and neuropsychological deficits. In this study, we compared CDS and various sociodemographic and clinical characteristics in OCD patients with (n = 44) and without ADHD (n = 72), and healthy controls (n = 43), using the Yale Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, Wender Utah Rating Scale, Adult ADD/ADHD DSM-IV Based Diagnostic Screening and Rating Scale, Barkley's Adult Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Rating Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, and Beck Anxiety Inventory. In addition to contamination obsessions (OR = 7.733, p = 0.002), male gender (OR = 3.732, p = 0.031), high anxiety (OR = 1.053, p = 0.02), and high CDS symptoms (OR = 1.145, p = 0.037) were associated with comorbidity between OCD and ADHD. We suggest that CDS may serve as a valuable construct for understanding the nature of comorbidity between OCD and ADHD.