COVID-19 and obsessive-compulsive symptoms in a large multi-site college sample.

The COVID-19 pandemic poses unique risks to college students' mental health, and specifically to symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). To better understand the relationship between COVID-19 impact and OC symptoms in this population, six colleges from across the US administered a battery of questionnaires and an emotion differentiation paradigm to eligible students ( = 841). We examined whether degree of pandemic-related disruption was associated with OC severity, and if so, whether this relationship was explained by trait (poor emotion regulation and differentiation) and state risk factors (poor sleep quality, less exercise frequency, less social support, thwarted sense of belongingness, and greater loneliness).

State and Trait Risk and Resilience Factors Associated with COVID-19 Impact and Obsessive-Compulsive Symptom Trajectories.

Unlabelled: The COVID-19 pandemic may exacerbate common symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, such as fears of contamination or causing harm to others. To investigate the potential impact of COVID-19 on obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms, we utilized a frequent sampling prospective design to assess changes in OC symptoms between April 2020 and January 2021. We examined in a broad clinical and non-clinical sample whether baseline risk (e.

Is my patient too sad to approach their fear? Depression severity and imaginal exposure outcomes for patients with OCD.

Background And Objectives: There is conflicting research on how comorbid depression impacts the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) with exposure with response prevention. To better understand this relationship, the current study tests theoretical claims that greater depression limits motivation to engage in exposures, restricts habituation, and interferes with adaptive learning.

Methods: Fifty-one individuals with OCD completed a diagnostic interview and self-report questionnaires assessing depression symptom severity and then participated in a standardized imaginal exposure protocol, in which they repeatedly approached an idiosyncratic fear deemed "moderately anxiety-provoking.

Treating Taboo or Forbidden Thoughts: Integrating Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Emotion Regulation Into an Exposure-Based Intervention.

Individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) who struggle with taboo or unacceptable obsessions (i.e., aggressive, sexual, or religious intrusions) tend to rely upon mental rituals to regulate their distress and possess difficulties labeling and regulating their affective state.

Validation of the Interpretation of Intrusions Inventory for the Mexican Population: Cross-Cultural Discrepancies.

To facilitate research on the cognitive model of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), leaders in the field of OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Cognitions Working Group [OCCWG]) developed and validated the Interpretation of Intrusions Inventory-31 (III-31). The current sought to adapt and validate this important measure for the Mexican population using a large sample of emerging adults ( = 457). Specifically, we evaluated the factor structure and convergent validity of the III-31 for the Mexican population.

Emotion generation and regulation following an intrusion induction: Implications for taboo or autogenous obsessions.

Background And Objectives: Research demonstrates that autogenous (AO) and reactive obsessions (RO) differ in obsessional content; however, no experimental research has examined differences in emotion generation and regulation. Characterizing this taxonomy with respect to emotion generation and regulation could refine conceptualizations of obsessionality and optimize clinical interventions.

Methods: Seventy undergraduates were randomly assigned to imagine a personally-relevant AO or RO.

My Child's thoughts frighten me: Maladaptive effects associated with parents' interpretation and management of children's intrusive thoughts.

Background And Objectives: Environmental factors explain substantial variance in youth's obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) and much of this research has focused upon overt parenting behaviors (e.g., accommodation).

Treatment utilization and barriers to treatment among individuals with olfactory reference syndrome (ORS).

Objective: Olfactory reference syndrome (ORS) is characterized by a preoccupation that one is emitting a foul or offensive odor. Despite the profound psychosocial impact of ORS, many patients do not receive appropriate treatment, and there is no empirical research on treatment-seeking behavior in ORS. This study investigated treatment utilization patterns and barriers to treatment in individuals with ORS.

Examining Attentional Bias in Scrupulosity: Null Findings From the Dot Probe Paradigm.

Research consistently demonstrates that individuals with anxiety symptoms exhibit attentional biases toward threatening stimuli using various computer-based tasks. However, the presence of attentional biases across obsessive-compulsive symptom presentations has been mixed and requires clarification. This study was the first to use the dot probe paradigm to investigate the association between scrupulosity symptoms (obsessions and compulsions having to do with religion and morality) and selective attention to scrupulosity-relevant lexical stimuli.

Mechanisms of change in cognitive therapy for obsessive compulsive disorder: role of maladaptive beliefs and schemas.

The present study aimed to identify mechanisms of change in individuals with moderately severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) receiving cognitive therapy (CT). Thirty-six adults with OCD received CT over 24 weeks. At weeks 0, 4/6, 12, 16/18, and 24, independent evaluators assessed OCD severity, along with obsessive beliefs and maladaptive schemas.

Prayer in Response to Negative Intrusive Thoughts: Closer Examination of a Religious Neutralizing Strategy.

Few studies have systematically examined the covert neutralizing strategies that serve to maintain and exacerbate the frequency and distress related to intrusive thoughts. Given the lack of research in this area, this study aimed to highlight development and maintenance factors for one such strategy, compensatory prayer, to inform assessment and treatment of related obsessional phenomena. We used a multimethod approach to examine the predictors and function of prayer when it is used in response to negative intrusive thoughts.

Recent advances in research on cognition and emotion in OCD: a review.

The cognitive model of OCD suggests that misinterpreting intrusive thoughts as unacceptable leads to increased anxiety and attempts to suppress or ignore the thoughts through avoidance or compulsive rituals. An insidious negative feedback loop develops as one's attention focuses on these thoughts and in turn the unwanted thoughts do not respond to efforts to avoid or suppress. This article is a current review of the research on cognitive processes in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Rigid Rules of Conduct and Duty: Prediction of Thought-Action Fusion.

Cognitive biases, such as thought-action fusion (TAF), play a crucial role in the cognitive-behavioral model of obsessional symptoms and have been shown to prospectively increase the risk of developing such symptoms. Much less research, however, has examined factors that might lead to the development of the cognitive biases themselves. This study aimed to replicate and extend existing work on correlates of moral (thinking about something is the moral equivalent of the corresponding action) and likelihood (thinking about a particular event increases the probability that this event will occur) TAF.

Differences in obsessive-compulsive symptoms and obsessive beliefs: a comparison between African Americans, Asian Americans, Latino Americans, and European Americans.

Clinical research has increasingly considered ethnic group differences in the expression of anxiety disorders, but to date few investigations have focused specifically on the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We examined group differences in OC symptoms, related cognitions ("obsessive beliefs"), and their associations. The sample included European American (N = 1199), African American (N = 215), Asian American (N = 116), and Latino American (N = 72) participants.

The "Arnold Schwarzenegger Effect": is strength of the "victim" related to misinterpretations of harm intrusions?

The present study used an in vivo paradigm to examine whether the victim's vulnerability in a harm-related intrusion affects beliefs about the importance of thoughts (i.e., Thought Action Fusion; TAF).

The contribution of experiential avoidance and social cognitions in the prediction of social anxiety.

Background: Cognitive models propose that social anxiety arises from specific dysfunctional cognitions about the likelihood and severity of embarrassment. Relational frame theory (RFT), on the other hand, posits that social anxiety arises from the unwillingness to endure unpleasant internal experiences (i.e.

The relationship between anxiety sensitivity and obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions.

Background And Objectives: Anxiety sensitivity (AS), the tendency to fear arousal-related body sensations based on beliefs that they are dangerous, is a cognitive vulnerability factor for certain anxiety symptoms such as panic and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Very little research, however, has examined the relationship between AS and obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms, which was the objective of the current research.

Methods: We administered dimensional measures of AS and OC symptoms to a large sample of undergraduate students (N = 636).

Dimensions of anxiety sensitivity in the anxiety disorders: evaluation of the ASI-3.

Anxiety sensitivity (AS), the fear of sensations of anxious arousal based on beliefs about their harmful consequences, is increasingly recognized as a multidimensional construct. The recently developed Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 [ASI-3; Taylor, S., Zvolensky, M.

The effects of familiarity on thought--action fusion.

The present study examined whether beliefs about the importance of thoughts (i.e., thought--action fusion; TAF) are related to the target subject of the negative thought.

The relationship between obsessive beliefs and symptom dimensions in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Research findings on the specific relationships between beliefs and OCD symptoms have been inconsistent, yet the existing studies vary in their approach to measuring the highly heterogeneous symptoms of this disorder. The Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DOCS) is a new measure that allows for the assessment of OCD symptom dimensions, rather than types of obsessions and compulsions per se. The present study examined the relationship between OCD symptom dimensions and dysfunctional (obsessive) beliefs believed to underlie these symptom dimensions using a large clinical sample of treatment-seeking adults with OCD.