she feels driven to perform (despite consciously knowing it is excessive) before leaving the office at the end of the work day, which is tied to her obsessive belief that something bad might happen (an electrical short circuit might cause a fire). Impairments in inhibition may, in part, have underpinned the expression of this obsessive-compulsive ritual at this point; specifically, the patient was unable to prevent herself from performing the checking rituals (failed response inhibition to repetitive behaviors). In support, content analyses have indicated that the ability to ignore obsessive thoughts and withhold associated compulsive behaviors (i.e. use inhibition effectively) is a key theme in patients’ experiences of symptoms [38].
