Metacognitive Functions in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in a Turkish Clinical Population: The Relationship Between Symptom Types and Metacognition Subdimensions

Abstract

Objective: One of the aims of this study was to investigate whether or not patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) differ from healthy controls in terms of their dysfunctional metacognitions. Another aim was to investigate the relationship between obsessive-compulsive (O-C) symptom types and subdimensions of metacognition.Methods: Fifty-two patients diagnosed with OCD and 65 healthy controls were evaluated using the Metacognitions Questionaire-30 (MCQ-30). Scale scores were compared using the Student-t test, and effect sizes of statistical significance were calculated. Additionally, the, Maudsley Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms Inventory (MOCI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were applied, and the correlations between the scores from these scales and the MCQ-30 were tested using Pearson correlation analysis.Results: MCQ-30 total scores in OCD patients compared to healthy controls were higher to a medium degree (p<0.0001, effect size=0.74). “Uncontrollability and danger” (p<0.0001, effect size=0.95), and “need to control thoughts” (p<0.0001, effect size=0.84) subscales were higher in patients with OCD patients with a large effect size. The highest correlations between subscales of MCQ-30 and MOCI scores were between “doubt/indecisiveness” symptom type scores and “uncontrollability and danger” (r=0.48) and “need to control thoughts” (r=0.47) subscale scores. In addition, the highest correlations between BAI score and subscales of these scales (MCQ-30 and MOCI) were between the same subscales (respectively; r=0.46, r=0.55, r =0.66).Conclusions: Dysfunctional metacognitions were quite high in OCD patients. Certain metacognition subdimensions (“uncontrollability and danger” and “need to control thoughts”) are of central importance in OCD. Some obsessive compulsive symptom types (“doubt/indecisiveness”) exhibit a more common and substantial relationship with these metacognitions. Our study is the first to investigate the relationship between OCD and metacognitions in Turkey and may contribute to a better understanding of metacognitive processes in OCD patients.