Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, United States; Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, United States.
University of Kentucky, United States.
J Anxiety Disord. 2021 Apr;79:102384. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2021.102384. Epub 2021 Mar 10.
Contamination-based obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is thought to develop and be maintained by excessive propensity to experience disgust, particularly in response to perceived contaminants, and dysfunctional threat appraisals pertaining to illness. The present studies attempted to integrate these lines of research by testing the degree to which contamination-based OCD is associated with individual differences in disgust propensity and sensitivity, affective distress in response to perceived contaminants, and perceived threat of illness. In Study 1, a convenience sample of 185 adults completed self-report scales assessing obsessive-compulsive symptoms, disgust propensity and sensitivity, germ aversion, and perceived infectability. Multivariate regression showed that disgust propensity and germ aversion were the only significant predictors of contamination-based obsessions and compulsions. Exploratory analyses suggested that there was a significant indirect effect of disgust propensity on contamination-based obsessions and compulsions via germ aversion. Findings from Study 1 were replicated using a sample of twenty-six obsessive-compulsive participants. Despite the substantially smaller sample, the proportion of the total effects attributable to the mediating effect of germ aversion was comparable, consistent with a significant partial mediation in both samples. These results together suggest that contamination-based OCD symptoms are likely maintained and motivated by basic affective processes.
基于污染的强迫症（OCD）被认为是由过度的厌恶倾向发展和维持的，特别是对感知到的污染物，以及与疾病相关的功能失调的威胁评估。本研究试图通过测试基于污染的 OCD 与厌恶倾向和敏感性、对感知到的污染物的情感困扰以及对疾病的感知威胁的个体差异之间的关联，来整合这些研究线索。在研究 1 中，185 名成年人的便利样本完成了自我报告量表，评估强迫症症状、厌恶倾向和敏感性、细菌厌恶和感知易感性。多元回归显示，厌恶倾向和细菌厌恶是基于污染的强迫观念和强迫行为的唯一显著预测因素。探索性分析表明，厌恶倾向通过细菌厌恶对基于污染的强迫观念和强迫行为有显著的间接影响。使用 26 名强迫症参与者的样本复制了研究 1 的结果。尽管样本量小了很多，但细菌厌恶的中介作用所产生的总效应的比例是可比的，这与两个样本中都存在显著的部分中介作用是一致的。这些结果共同表明，基于污染的 OCD 症状可能是由基本的情感过程维持和驱动的。
