Alexithymia, resilience and suicidal ideation among patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

BackgroundObsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric illness with a considerable risk of alexithymia, and suicide may make this risk worse. This study aimed to assess alexithymia, resilience, and suicidal ideation among patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. A cross-sectional study was established at the psychiatric outpatient clinic at Zagazig University Hospitals in addition to Abbasyia Hospital for Mental Health in Cairo City. A purposive sample of 140 obsessive-compulsive patients. Five tools were used for data collection, including the socio-demographic questionnaire, the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Resilience Scale, and the Scale for Suicidal Ideation (SSI).ResultsThe study findings demonstrated that in excess of two-thirds of the studied subjects had mild obsessive-compulsive disorder, slightly more than two-thirds of them suffered from alexithymia, more than half of patients had a moderate level of resilience, and the majority of them had suicidal ideation. Patients' obsessive-compulsive score was a statistically significant positive predictor for suicidal ideation.ConclusionsA positive and significant correlation was found between patients' obsessive-compulsive scores and both alexithymia and suicidal ideation scores. Negatively significant correlations were found between resilience and each patient's obsessive-compulsive score, alexithymia, and suicidal ideation. Therefore, it is recommended implementing longitudinal studies to establish the causality between OCD Sufferers' resilience, alexithymia, and ideations of suicide.