Abstract
Objective: The present study examines the pattern of changes in temperament and character profiles of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) patients following 8-20 weeks of treatment for obsessive compulsive symptoms (OC symptoms). Methodology: The study also investigated the relationship between the temperament and character pattern and the severity of OC symptoms. A sample of 52 patients who met DSM IV TR criteria was assessed using Temperament Character Inventory, Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, Hamilton Depression rating scale and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale. After baseline assessment of 52 OCD patients only 40 OCD patients, who complied with medication for 8-20 weeks were re- assessed using the same measures as a follow-up assessment. Result: Finding indicated that after treatment the patients showed significantly lower score on Harm Avoidance whereas Self Directedness and Cooperativeness was significantly poorer in comparison to normal subjects. Severity of OC symptoms was correlated with Self Directedness, and co morbid anxiety was correlated with high Harm Avoidance and low Cooperativeness. Conclusion: These findings suggest that temperament is more amenable to treatment than character dimensions of OCD patients.
Highlights
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is characterized by recurrent and intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviors
OCD being a complex disorder has been seen to be influenced by specific personality types, as regards its psychopathology and treatment and outcome [1].Studies have tried to establish a relationship between personality traits and OCD [3]
It has been seen that higher order personality traits, such as high neuroticism and, low extraversion and sensation seeking [3,4,5] and low order personality traits, such as perfectionism and inflated responsibility [6,7] have not been found to be related to OCD
Summary
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is characterized by recurrent and intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviors. Cloninger [9] classified human temperament with its genetic component into 4 dimensions, namely novelty seeking (NA), harm avoidance (HA), reward dependence (RD), and persistence (P). Cloninger and his colleagues [8] supplemented it with the concept of acquired character in which genetic components contributed upto10% to 15%, and the environmental component up to 30% to 35%.The environmental component of character include self-directedness (SD), cooperativeness (C), and self-transcendence (SD)
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