Relationship between Obsessive Beliefs and Symptoms in Patients with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Introduction: Misinterpretation of intrusive thoughts because of obsessive beliefs has been thought to be important in the development of obsessive compulsive symptoms. In current study, (I) the difference between OCD patients and healthy controls in regard of obsessive beliefs and (II) the relation of obsesive beliefs with the prevelance and severity of obsessive compulsive symptoms was investigated. Methods: The current study included 47 OCD patients and 44 healthy controls who have same properties with regard to age, sex and duration of education. All subjects were applied to Obsessive Beliefs Scale, Maudsley Obsessive Compulsive Scale, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale. OCD patients were applied to Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale as well as the other scales. Results: In analyses by controlling depression and anxiety scores, OCD patients had significantly higher scores than controls, with regard to all subscales of Obsessive Beliefs Scale. Also, prevalence of obsessive compulsive symptoms other than cleaning were correlated with obsessive beliefs about "responsibility and threat estimation" and "perfectionism and need for certainty". Hovewer, there was no correlation in between severity of obsessive compulsive symptoms and subscale scores of Obsessive Beliefs Scale. Conclusion: Excluding the effects of depression and anxiety, generally the results suggests that obsessive beliefs have an important role for development of obsessive compulsive symptoms. Future studies of seperated OCD subgroup with regard to obsessive compulsive symptoms will be helpful in determinig the difference among these subgroups in regard of obsessive beliefs.