Comparison of theory of mind and alexithymia in adult attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder

Paper Abstract:

Aim: The overarching aim of this study is to better understand the theory of mind and alexithymia in adult ADHD and OCD patients

Method: Patients with a diagnosis of OCD, adult ADHD and control group (each group was 30) were considered as eligible. Inclusion was aged between 18-50 and cut off above 13 point of Yale-Brown for OCD patients. Exclusion criteria included past or current diagnosis of substance abuse and psychotic symptoms.
All participants were assessed with the Reading the mind in the eye task (RMET), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (YBOCS).
Result: Healthy group in comparison with the OCD and ADHD groups, showed significantly higher scores in theory of mind. There were no significant differences between two clinical groups. In comparison to ADHD and OCD group, the healthy group showed significantly lower scores in alexithymia. Furthermore, alexithymia scores were lower in the OCD group compared to the ADHD group.

Conclusion: alexithymia is considered as a defense mechanism resulting from periods of the inability to identify the emotions. Given to some overlapping brain regions, to be involved both in theory of mind abilities and neurobiology of OCD significant differences observed between theory of mind in two clinical groups and healthy group. Regarding The problem of alexithymia in OCD, individuals with hoarding symptoms, have impaired emotional awareness and mental representations about the self and others.

Co-author 1:
Maryam Nazemi, Islamic Azad University of Kashan

Co-author 2:
Nikzad Ghanbari, Shahid Beheshti University