A comparison of selective attention among depressed patients, obsessive anxious and normal individuals

As we can not process all the information, we should select the information which is of great importance for us. It seems that patients with anxiety disorders, draw selective attention to stimulants which are associated with those disorders and ignore other information. Thus, the purpose of this study is a comparison of selective attention among patients with depression, obsessive, anxiety, and normal individuals. This paired comparison study carried out on all normal individuals and patients with depression, anxiety and obsessive- compulsive referred to psychiatric clinic of Lorestan university of medical sciences in 2012. 120 patients (30 cases with depression, 30 anxiety, 30 obsessive - compulsive and 30 normal) were selected using convenience sampling method. To measure selective attention, the Stroop test (color test - word) was used. The descriptive indicators (frequency, mean, standard deviation) and inferential test of Scheffe were used for multivariate analysis. The results showed that depressed individuals, response speed is slower than the other 3 groups. Also anxiety and obsessive patients compared to normal ones have slower response speed, but show faster reaction than the depressed people. As well as, the results showed that depressed individual have more erros in comparison with normal people, but no significant difference was doserved between other groups in this field. Based on the obtained results and regarding the importance of application of selective attention in everyday life, it is recommended put a lot of effort to increase slective attention in these patients.