Abstract
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with emotion regulation impairments, namely the frequent use of maladaptive strategies such as suppression and the decreased use of reappraisal strategies. Additionally, these patients exhibit elevated stress levels. Since stress exposure affects emotion regulation abilities, stress might influence the relationship between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and emotion regulation. In this study, we explored the effects of stress and obsessive-compulsive symptoms on emotion regulation in a sample of healthy and OCD individuals. We used self-reported psychometric scales to measure stress levels, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and emotion reappraisal and suppression skills. We applied multiple regression and mediation analyses. Our results demonstrated that increased reappraisal scores were associated with higher suppression scores. Additionally, elevated stress values predicted increased scores for suppression and decreased scores for reappraisal. Furthermore, the reappraisal abilities resulted from a combination of a direct effect of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and an indirect effect of obsessive-compulsive symptoms mediated by stress. The reliance on suppression strategies and the difficulty in using reappraisal approaches are explained by stress levels and are not directly explained by obsessive-compulsive symptoms. This study highlights the necessity of targeting stress in current therapy-based treatments for OCD.
Highlights
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may arise from an interplay between genetic and environmental risk factors, namely exposure to stressful and traumatic life events [1, 2]
Within the OCD group, we found a positive correlation between the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCIR) and 10-items Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) scores (Supplementary Table 1)
We evaluated if stress and OC symptoms have a negative effect on emotion regulation measures in a sample composed of OCD and healthy participants
Summary
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may arise from an interplay between genetic and environmental risk factors, namely exposure to stressful and traumatic life events [1, 2]. Increases in general stress (e.g., job loss and family disease) and changes in routines throughout life are features associated with the development [3] and severity [4, 5] of OCD. The enhanced levels of distress might increase the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function resulting in an augmented stress response [7,8,9]. In line with this assumption, previous studies have found correlations between perceived stress levels and obsessive-compulsive symptoms in OCD and healthy individuals [10,11,12], and between cortisol responses and obsessive-compulsive symptoms in healthy individuals [13].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call