Symptom subtypes of obsessive-compulsive disorder and their relation to dissociation

We examined relations between obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms and dissociation in three studies. Studies 1 and 2 established a strong level of convergence between our two OCD symptom measures. Specific types of symptoms showed a clear convergent/discriminant pattern, indicating that they can be meaningfully distinguished from one another. In both studies, dissociation correlated more strongly with checking and obsessive intrusions than with cleaning, ordering, and hoarding. Moreover, these associations remained substantial even after controlling for neuroticism (Study 1) and other types of anxiety (Study 2). In Study 3, we replicated our key findings in a psychiatric outpatient sample, indicating that they are generalizable to clinical participants. Taken together, our results (a) establish a strong link between dissociation and OCD, and (b) illustrate the importance of analyzing different types of OCD symptoms separately.