An investigation of self-esteem in the treatment of OCD

Abstract

The cognitive-behavioral model of obsessive-compulsive disorder, along with several contemporary theories, suggests that self-esteem is likely an important component of OCD psychopathology and treatment. Little research, however, has explored the association between self-esteem and OCD. The study of self-esteem is itself a complex pursuit. A comprehensive investigation of self-esteem requires consideration of state and trait aspects of this construct and a longitudinal perspective, particularly when self-esteem is studied during the course of psychological treatment. In this study, adults participating in psychological treatment for OCD provided repeated self-reports of self-esteem throughout the course of therapy. The aims of this study were to evaluate the relationship between self-esteem and severity of OCD and depressive symptoms; to examine whether temporal variability (i.e., fluctuation) in self-esteem was associated with symptom reduction; and to measure changes in self-esteem over time. Our results indicated the following: average self-esteem across treatment, variability in self-esteem, and depressive symptomatology were significantly correlated with post-treatment OCD severity; self-esteem did not affect the rate of OCD symptom change over treatment but did significantly affect the rate of depressive symptom change; self-esteem increased significantly before and after sessions, on average, and over the course of treatment. Implications and further directions are discussed.