comparing attentional control and intrusive thoughts in obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and non clinical population.

objective: attention is an important factor in information processing; obsessive- compulsive disorder (ocd) and generalized anxiety disorder (gad) are two main emotional disorders with a chronic course. this research examined the relationship among attentional control and intrusive thoughts (worry, rumination and obsession) in these disorders. it was hypothesized that attentional control is a common factor in ocd and gad. in addition, we compared worry, rumination and obsession among ocd, gad and non- clinical participants . method: the research sample included three groups: ocd (n = 25), gad (n = 30) and non- clinical samples (n = 56). data were collected using the attentional control scale (acs), rumination response scale (rrs), pennsylvania state worry questionnaire (pswq), beck depression inventory (bdi), beck anxiety inventory (bai), obsessive-compulsive inventory-revised (oci-r) and general health questionnaire (ghq-28). data were analyzed using manova and mancova by spss-17 . result: multivariate analy is of variance revealed that the ocd and gad groups reported greater deficits in attentional control, higher obsessive-compulsive symptoms, rumination, worry, anxiety and depression compared to the control group. conclusion: this research indicated a great attentional deficit in obsessive- compulsive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. however, no significant difference was found between these two disorders.