TEMPERAMENT AND CHARACTER TRAITS IN PATIENTS WITH OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER

Personality is an essential variable in order to understand the course of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Among the studies investigating the relationship between OCD and personality traits, the most common finding is that individuals diagnosed with OCD was reported to have higher levels of Harm Avoidance (HA) trait compared to healthy controls. In addition, OCD group was found to have lower scores regarding Self- Directedness (SD), Cooperativeness (C) or Novelty Seeking (NS). The patient group of the study consisted of patients were diagnosed with OCD by SCID-I scanning. The healthy control group had similar age, gender, and educational level characteristics as the patient group. The patients and the control group were asked to fill out a Sociodemographic Data Form, Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), Beck Depression and Beck Anxiety Scales. For the patient group, Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, and Yale-Brown Symptom Checklist were filled out by the clinician who conducted the psychiatric interview. Patients with OCD (n=70) were characterized by higher HA (p<0.001) scores and lower C (p=0.034), and SD (p<0.001) scores than the healthy control group (n=65). When comparing pure OCD patients (n=23) with the healthy control group, their HA scores were higher and the self-transcendence (ST) scores were lower. Compared to the healthy control group, OCD patients with psychiatric comorbidity (n=47) had a higher HA score and a lower SD score. Comorbid OCD patients' SD scores were lower and ST scores were higher compared to the patients with Pure OCD. No significant relationship was found between OCD severity and TCI subscales. Our findings indicate the importance of considering the presence of comorbid psychiatric diagnoses for the evaluation of personality dimensions in OCD patients. The assessment of temperament and character traits in OCD may provide clinical benefit in terms of predicting the prognosis and planning appropriate psychotherapeutic interventions.