Temperament and character in subjects with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Clinical Neuroscience

Background:

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating mental health condition.
• Understanding the role of personality traits in OCD is crucial for diagnosis and treatment.
• Previous research suggests potential links between personality and OCD, but further investigation is warranted.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare personality traits between individuals with OCD and healthy controls using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI).
• To investigate the relationship between personality traits and the severity of obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms.
• To explore the influence of specific personality traits on the dimensional scores of OCD symptoms.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 130 patients diagnosed with OCD and 185 age- and sex-matched healthy controls.
• Administered the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) to all participants.
• Assessed OCD symptom severity using the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and its factor-analyzed symptom dimensions, along with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale.

Main Results:

• Patients with OCD displayed higher harm avoidance and lower self-directedness (SD), reward dependence (RD), and cooperativeness (C) scores than controls.
• Lower SD and C scores were significantly associated with greater OC symptom severity, even after controlling for age and depression.
• The hoarding dimension of OCD symptoms correlated with lower SD and higher persistence (P) scores, independent of age, overall symptom severity, and depression.

Conclusions:

• Significant differences in TCI-defined personality traits exist between individuals with OCD and controls.
• Certain personality traits appear to influence the severity and specific symptom dimensions of OCD.
• These findings highlight the importance of personality assessment in understanding and managing OCD.