Assessment of early maladaptive schemas in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Özet

Objective: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a chronic and severely disabling mental disorder with a fluctuating course that is characterized by persistent and unwanted thoughts and ritualistic behaviors. The aim of this study was to determine early maladaptive schemas in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder and to investigate related demographic and clinical factors. Method: The study was carried out with 51 OCD patients and 51 healthy voluntary participants between June 01, 2017 and June 01, 2018 at the Psychiatry Department of Kocaeli University’s Faculty of Medicine. Participants were assessed with Yale-Brown ObsessiveCompulsive Symptom Scale and Check List (Y-BOCS), Young Schema Questionnaire – Short Form 3 (YSQ-S3), Young-Rygh Avoidance Inventory (YRAI), Young Compensation Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAM-A). Results: In OCD patients, enmeshment/undeveloped self, abandonment, failure, pessimism, vulnerability to harm or illness, emotional deprivation, social isolation/alienation, defectiveness/shame, approval seeking, insufficient self-control/self-discipline, self-sacrifice, and punitiveness schema scores were found significantly higher than in the control group. Psychosomatic symptoms and distraction-through-activity schema avoidance scores and status seeking, control and intolerance to criticism schema overcompensation scores in OCD patients were found significantly higher than in the control group. When depression and anxiety scores were adjusted in OCD patients; failure, insufficient self-control/self-discipline, self-sacrificing schemas and all schema domains were found to predict the severity of the disease. In addition, it was found that the vulnerability-to-harm-or-illness schema score and distraction-through-activity schema avoidance score predicted a decrease in the severity of disease. Conclusion: The identification of schemas in OCD may be helpful in terms of the etiopathogenesis and treatment of the disease. In addition, studies on determination and reduction of schemas in OCD patients may be useful for an early treatment of the disease.