The impact of personality on symptom expression in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Previous research conducted on the five-factor model of personality (FFM) in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has demonstrated that community and clinical participants score significantly higher than controls on the domains and facets of neuroticism and extraversion and selective facets of agreeableness and conscientiousness. However, studies have yet to examine the extent to which personality traits, as assessed by the FFM, are associated with the specific symptoms of OCD. The purpose of this study was to examine further the personality predictors of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in clinical participants using the facets of the FFM. Patients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of OCD (N = 56) completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, the Yale Brown Obsession Compulsion Scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory. Lower scores on openness to ideas were uniquely associated with greater obsession severity, whereas lower openness to actions was uniquely associated with greater compulsive severity. In contrast with past research that has emphasized the association between neuroticism and extraversion and dimensionally rated obsessive-compulsive symptoms, this study demonstrates the specific associations between selective facet traits of openness and clinical obsessions and compulsions. Whereas tendencies toward negative affectivity may confer a nonspecific vulnerability to the development of OCD, facets of openness may impact on the particular expression and severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms.