The Efficacy of Motor-Based Cognitive Rehabilitation in Inhibitory Control, Cognitive Flexibility, and Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms of Adolescents with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

This study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of motor-based cognitive rehabilitation in inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms of adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder. The current study is semi-experimental research using a pre-test-post-test and a 3-month follow-up with a control group design. Thirty male and female individuals aged 14 to 18 years’ old who had been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder and were seeking treatment at counseling and psychological services centers in Ahvaz participated in the study. Participants met the inclusion criteria were selected using a convenience sampling and randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. The mean and standard deviation age of the participants in the experimental group was 16.5±1.20, while in the control group, was 16.6±1.19. Before the intervention, participants were evaluated using appropriate instruments, including the Go/No Go Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale. After the evaluation, the participants in the experimental group underwent 12 sessions of cognitive rehabilitation treatment. Each session lasted 45 minutes. The participants in the control group did not receive any intervention. Participants were re-evaluated immediately after completing the intervention sessions and again three months later. MANCOVA and separate ANCOVAs analyses showed that motor-based cognitive rehabilitation can lead to improvements in inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and a reduction in obsessive-compulsive symptoms (p < .05). Based on the research results, motor-based cognitive rehabilitation can be used as a treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder.