Do all obsessions contradict personal values to the same degree? A pilot investigation

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Intrusive thoughts are common, but the factors determining which become obsessions are unclear.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a heterogeneous condition.
• Personal values may play a role in obsession development, potentially varying by symptom subtype.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if the degree to which intrusive thoughts contradict personal values influences obsession development in OCD.
• To examine if this relationship varies across different OCD symptom domains.
• To assess changes in value-contradiction ratings following group cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).

Main Methods:

• Archival data from 62 patients diagnosed with OCD were analyzed.
• Patients reported their most upsetting obsession and its degree of personal value violation before and after group CBT.
• Contradiction ratings were compared across different OCD symptom domains.

Main Results:

• Pretreatment, patients with primary obsessions/checking symptoms reported significantly higher value-contradiction ratings than those with other primary symptoms.
• Value-contradiction ratings did not significantly change from pre- to posttreatment.
• The degree of personal value violation associated with obsessions varied by symptom subtype.

Conclusions:

• The degree to which intrusive thoughts contradict personal values may be a determinant in the development of specific obsessions within OCD.
• Contradictions with personal values appear linked to obsessions/checking symptoms.
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy did not alter the degree to which obsessions contradicted personal values in this sample.