The relationship of insight with obsessive beliefs and metacognition in obsessive compulsive disorder

Özet

Objectives: The treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) aims to neutralize obsessions and improve insight, in consideration of the information that OCD patients have positive beliefs about anxiety and do not rely on their attention and memory. Nevertheless, there are a limited number of studies about the relationship of insight with metacognitions and types of obsessive beliefs among OCD patients. This study aims to investigate those relationships. Methods: This study was conducted with a patient group, 101 OCD patients, and 52 healthy volunteers in the control group. All participants were given the Sociodemographic Data Form, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), Obsessional Beliefs Questionnaire (OBQ-44) and Metacognition Questionnaire (MCQ-30). The patient group also received the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and the Overvalued Ideas Scale (OVIS). According to OVIS scores, the patient group was separated into two groups; poor insight and good insight. Results: The average scores of positive beliefs and cognitive confidence subscales of MCQ-30 were credible among the patient and healthy control groups. Patients with poor and good insight did not differ with regard to severity of obsessions, compulsions, depression, duration and beginning type of the disorder and other clinical and demographic variables and average scale scores. Patients with poor insight had higher average scores of MCQ positive beliefs than patients with good insight; however, the difference was not significant despite being close to the statistical significance verge. Depression severity of patients was higher than controls. Conclusion: Study results demonstrates that, contrary to common belief, certain metacognitions of patients and controls were comparable. No significant relationship was found between insight and metacognition in OCD. There is a need for qualitative studies with larger samples and more demographic and clinical data regarding insight. Additionally, the role of insight in OCD is arguable and the deterministic role of the level of insight in clinical approach and treatment should be questioned.