Obsessive-compulsive Patients Research Articles

Alexithymia, resilience and suicidal ideation among patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder

BackgroundObsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric illness with a considerable risk of alexithymia, and suicide may make this risk worse. This study aimed to assess alexithymia, resilience, and suicidal ideation among patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder. A cross-sectional study was established at the psychiatric outpatient clinic at Zagazig University Hospitals in addition to Abbasyia Hospital for Mental Health in Cairo City. A purposive sample of 140 obsessive–compulsive patients. Five tools were used for data collection, including the socio-demographic questionnaire, the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Resilience Scale, and the Scale for Suicidal Ideation (SSI).ResultsThe study findings demonstrated that in excess of two-thirds of the studied subjects had mild obsessive–compulsive disorder, slightly more than two-thirds of them suffered from alexithymia, more than half of patients had a moderate level of resilience, and the majority of them had suicidal ideation. Patients’ obsessive–compulsive score was a statistically significant positive predictor for suicidal ideation.ConclusionsA positive and significant correlation was found between patients’ obsessive–compulsive scores and both alexithymia and suicidal ideation scores. Negatively significant correlations were found between resilience and each patient’s obsessive–compulsive score, alexithymia, and suicidal ideation. Therefore, it is recommended implementing longitudinal studies to establish the causality between OCD Sufferers’ resilience, alexithymia, and ideations of suicide.

Relationship Between Obsessional Beliefs and Insight in Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Introduction: OCD is a heterogenous entity in terms of symptoms and insight. Various models have been formed to explain the complexity of OCD and how obsessive beliefs play a vital role in the etiology and psychopathology of OCD. Evaluating the association between these beliefs and insight can be very advantageous.
 Method: aim: to determine the relation between obsessive beliefs and the level of insight in obsessive compulsive patients, Venue: The study was conducted at the institute of mental health and hospital, Agra, Design: The study is a hospital based cross sectional study. sampling: 80 ocd patients as per ICD-10 diagnostic criteria were selected through purposive sampling. Tools: Patients assessed using Obsessional belief questionnaire-44 (OBQ-44) and Scale to Assess Unawareness in Mental Disorder (SUMD).
 Result: the data was analysed with product moment correlation and it was found that OBQ-ICT has negative correlation (r = -0.36) with SUMD indicating controlling thought promote insight in patients. No significant correlation was found between OBQ-RT and OBQ-PC and insight.
 Conclusion: In this study importance of control of thought was the only variable which is significantly correlated with level of insight. Implications of these findings for conceptualising the relationship between obsessive beliefs and insight have been discussed.
 Key Words: OCD, Obsessional belief, Insight, SUMD.
 

Obsessive-compulsive existential type: a dialectical-phenomenological approach.

The clinical presentation of obsessive-compulsive patients is characterized by unwanted, intrusive, nonsensical, self-related, and recurrent ideas, thoughts, images, or impulses associated with active compulsive compensations. Under the operational diagnostic criteria adopted by the biological- and cognitive-oriented neopositivist medical paradigm, it is known as "obsessive-compulsive disorder." However, this paradigm has been criticized for its controversial assumptions, limited methodologies, theoretic biases, and inconsistency in producing practical outcomes. To bypass some of these issues, we propose a complementary approach that draws on and further develops existing psychopathological studies of the obsessive-compulsive anthropological condition based on dialectical phenomenological psychopathology. As such, we refer to the global clinical configuration as the "obsessive-compulsive existential type." Our theoretical inspiration comes from the classical phenomenological work on obsessions undertaken by Straus and Gebsattel, which identified the negative transformation of the obsessive-compulsive life-world or the endogenous emergence of the anti-eidos (diluting existential force). We then propose to broaden the concept of anti-eidos, especially in its dialectical correlation with eidos (unifying existential force), representing the existential dialectic between transformation and permanence. Next, we detail the dynamics of anthropological disproportions in obsessive-compulsive existential type, essentially the supremacy of the anti-eidos over the eidos. This primary imbalance modifies the obsessive-compulsive existential structure, consisting of polymorphic temporality; weakened intentionality; maladjusted calibration of distance with the world and others; an integral, isolated, besieged self with dwindling self-agency, and tense and over-protecting embodiment. We also analyze compensatory hyperreflexivity and compulsive rituals as expressions of structural counterbalancing designed to contain the primary structural disproportions and derangements. The heterogeneous obsessive-compulsive clinical manifestations are the complex result of the primary structural alteration and subsequent phenomenological compensations. They tend to be variable in temporal span and rarely assume a fixed form, hindering diagnosis. We correlate structural frameworks with multiple clinical examples. Finally, we raise some insights on how our study may contribute to scientific research and therapeutic proposals.

Comparison of the effectiveness of the schema therapy package based on psychosocial issues of obsessive-compulsive patients with cognitive-behavioral therapy on early maladaptive schemas and anxiety in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Comparison of the effectiveness of the schema therapy package based on psychosocial issues of obsessive-compulsive patients with cognitive-behavioral therapy on early maladaptive schemas and anxiety in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Severity and Changes in OCD Dimensions during COVID-19: A Two-Year Longitudinal Study.

The COVID-19 pandemic appears to be associated with a worsening of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in both young people and adults with OCD and it is necessary to analyze the variables involved in this worsening over time. The main aim of this study was to examine long-term changes in total severity and obsessive-compulsive dimensions in obsessive-compulsive patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total 250 OCD patients were selected from various associations, clinical centers and hospitals. We discarded 75 as they did not meet the inclusion criteria. A total of 175 obsessive-compulsive participants aged between 16 and 58 years old (M = 33.33, SD = 9.42) were evaluated in obsessive-compulsive symptom severity and dimensions OCD assessed using the Y-BOCS and D-YBOCS scales in T1 (April-June 2020) and in T2 (March-April 2022). The evaluation was carried out through an online survey and face-to-face with a professional clinician at both time points. Intragroup differences in severity were observed, reaching higher scores for patients with contamination, somatic, aggressive and religious. Some patients changed their main dimension, increasing the percentage of patients with contamination and somatic obsessions. COVID-19 was associated with both changes in severity and also affected some dimensions more than others, particularly those related to the virus itself (contamination and somatic).

Effectiveness of Emotional Processing Therapy on the Anxiety among Obsessive-Compulsive Patients.

The Article Abstract is not available.

Evaluation of Nasal Mucociliary Clearance as an Indicator of Nasal Function in Obsessive-Compulsive Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12070-023-03972-2.

Direct changes of neurometabolic concentrations in the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex among obsessive-compulsive patients after repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment

Background and aimAlthough Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) is a promising new noninvasive brain stimulation therapy, its underlying mechanisms of action remain unknown. OCD patients exhibit impaired response control and attention shifting, which is linked to some brain areas such as anterior cingulate cortex and basal ganglia. OCD patients also display altered neurometabolic concentrations in cortical cortical-striatal-thalamic-cortical (CSTC). In this study, we aimed to elucidate efficacy of rTMS treatment in alleviating related symptoms and pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC) neurometabolites. MethodsOCD patients were randomly divided into either drug (n = 23) or drug + rTMS (n = 29) groups, and those in the latter group subjected to 4-week rTMS treatment. All participants were visited twice, at baseline and follow-up after four weeks. During both visits, all patients were subjected to 1H-MRS, then Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and the Global Assessment Function (GAF) used to assess severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. We also evaluated synchronous anxiety and depression by Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A) and Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D). ResultsAfter 4 weeks of treatment, patients in the Drug + rTMS group displayed significantly lower Y-BOCS (p = 0.038), BDI (p = 0.009), HAM-D (p = 0.013), HAM-A (p = 0.012) scores than their counterparts in the Drug group. Conversely, patients in the Drug + rTMS group had significantly higher tNAA concentrations (p = 0.030) than those in the Drug group. Notably, the Drug + rTMS group exhibited higher, but insignificant Glu (p = 0.055) and Glx (p = 0.068) concentrations compared to the Drug group. Partial correlation analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between post HAM-A scores and 4-week change of pACC glutamate levels in the Drug + rTMS group (r = −0.434, p = 0.02). ConclusionrTMS treatment is an efficacious treatment therapy for OCD, mainly by inducing changes in neurometabolites.

Embitterment and metacognition in obsessive–compulsive disorder

ObjectiveEmbitterment is a persistent emotion that is known to everybody in reaction to injustice and being let down, associated with feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. People with psychiatric disorders can develop bitterness, which is to be understood as a form of reactive embitterment to the illness. The aim of this explorative study was to investigate the occurrence of embitterment in obsessive–compulsive patients compared to healthy volunteers and in the context of their metacognitions and other biographical and clinical characteristics.MethodFollowing a semi-structured diagnostic interview, a number of measures were administered to 31 patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) [ICD-10 F42.X: mean age 35.2 (SD = 10.7) years] and 31 healthy volunteers [mean age 39.1 (SD = 15.0) years]. These measures included the Post-Traumatic Embitterment Disorder questionaire (PTEDq) for measuring embitterment, the Yale-Brown Obsessive–Compulsive Scale, the Metacognition Questionnaire and other psychometric questionnaires such as the Beck Depression Inventory and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory.ResultsPatients with OCD scored more than three times higher (mean = 2.0, SD = 1.1) than the healthy participants in the PTEDq (mean = 0.6, SD = 0.8; p < 0.001), but the cut-off of < 2.5 for a clinically relevant embitterment disorder was not reached. Dysfunctionally distorted metacognition (MCQ-30), which is a consistent finding in OCD, as well as a generally high degree of clinical impairment were significantly cor related to the degree of embitterment.ConclusionOur findings suggest that embitterment as measured by PTEDq is important in patients with OCD, who are characterized by metacognitive distortions with an injustice of fate as well as a mortification of their self-image. In future, it would be necessary to screen patients with OCD not only for depressive symptoms but also specifically for feelings of embitterment in order to be able to initiate appropriate psychotherapeutic measures at an early stage.

The relationship between moral judgment ability, parenting style, and perfectionism in obsessive-compulsive disorder patients: A mediating analysis.

Guilt is an important part of obsessive-compulsive disorder. The abnormal moral cognition of obsessive-compulsive disorder patients may be closely related to their high level of guilt. The purpose of this study was to explore the development level of moral judgment in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and the role of parenting style and perfectionism in moral judgment development. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the clinical psychology department of a Class III hospital in Beijing. The patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder were recruited, and the healthy control subjects were recruited at the same time. Questionnaires were used to collect data, including the Yale-Brown Compulsion Scale, the Moral Judgment Test, the Parenting Style Evaluation Scale, and the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale. A total of 231 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and 246 healthy controls were included. The results showed that, first, the obsessive-compulsive group scored significantly lower on moral judgment than the healthy control group. Second, the tendency of non-adaptive perfectionism was significantly higher in the obsessive-compulsive group than in the healthy control group. Third, parents' excessive control, denial, punishment, and other parenting styles and non-adaptive perfectionism are higher than those of healthy people. Fourthly, the mother of obsessive-compulsive disorder patients is overly interference and protective. Rejection, denial, punishment, harshness, and father's rejection and denial play a partial mediating role in moral judgment ability through the degree of non-adaptive perfectionism. The development level of moral judgment ability of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder was significantly lower than that of the normal group, and the level of non-adaptive perfectionism was significantly higher than that of the normal group. Parents of obsessive-compulsive patients use more high-pressure control education. Parenting style partially affects the moral judgment of obsessive-compulsive patients through the degree of non-adaptive perfectionism.

Pathology of imagination in an adolescent at clinical high-risk for psychosis.

We report a pathological imagination process in an adolescent at clinical high-risk for psychosis, associated with the presence of self-disorders. The subjective experience associated with pathological imagination helped in distinguishing such mental activity from intrusive thoughts of obsessive-compulsive patients; moreover, such anomalous imagination focused on other people may be an adaptive process triggered by negative emotionality against others that appear difficult or impossible to relationally grasp and attune with. In conclusion, anomalies of imaginations may occur within the schizophrenic spectrum since adolescent prodromal stages, associated with self-disorders.

Comparison of the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) with metacognitive therapy (MCT) in objective cognitive information processing style of obsessive-compulsive patients (OCD).

In recent studies, the deficit in the cognitive process has been investigated as one of the etiological hypotheses in a wide range of obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD). This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and metacognitive therapy (MCT) on objective cognitive information processing style in obsessive-compulsive patients. This quasi-experimental study with a pre-test and post-test plan and a control group was conducted on 45 patients with OCD, matched with gender, age, and educational and marital status. The samples in three groups were selected using the convenience sampling method. Finally, the study participants were randomly divided into two experimental groups and one control group and assessed using Pacini and Epstein's rational experimental Inventory (REI) in two stages, pre-test, and post-test. The experimental groups received ACT and MCT weekly during eight and seven sessions and in a group. The results showed that ACT and MCT are effective at a significant level in the objective cognitive information processing style of obsessive-compulsive patients (P < 0.05). The post-test results showed that the effect of ACT in changing rational processing style is more effective than MCT treatment. Also, the effect of ACT on intuitive processing style changes was greater than on MCT treatment. The findings of this study indicate that ACT and MCT cause a significant change in intuitive style to rationalism in the thematic processing of cognitive information of obsessive-compulsive patients. According to the results, both methods of treatment improve the research variables in these patients.

Evaluation of the effects of non-invasive neurostimulation technique on self-reported quality of life and disability in treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive patients

Evaluation of the effects of non-invasive neurostimulation technique on self-reported quality of life and disability in treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive patients

Comparison of the effectiveness of the schema therapy package based on psychosocial issues of obsessive-compulsive patients with cognitive-behavioral therapy on early maladaptive schemas and anxiety in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Background and Aim: obsessive-compulsive disorder is a debilitating anxiety disorder whose main feature is the occurrence of obsessions and compulsive actions. The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of the schema therapy package based on psycho-social issues of obsessive-compulsive patients with cognitive-behavioral therapy on early maladaptive schemas and anxiety in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Methods: This article was a semi-experimental method, pre-test-post-test type with a control group and a 45-day follow-up period. The research population in this study included all patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder who referred to two psychotherapy clinics in Isfahan city. For the study, 45 people were randomly selected into two groups of schema therapy based on psychosocial issues (based on Yang, Kliusko and Wishar, 2003), cognitive-behavioral therapy (Struch et al., 2007) and a control group (each group). 15 people) were placed. Before and after the intervention and 45 days later (follow-up stage), the subjects responded to the short-form Young’s schema questionnaire (Young, 1994) and the anxiety questionnaire (Beck, 1989). The data was analyzed using the method of analysis of variance with repeated measurements and Spss.22 software. Results: The results of the study showed that there is a significant difference in the mean of early maladaptive schemas and anxiety in two experimental groups (schema therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy) and evidence. In addition, based on the results of schema therapy compared to cognitive-behavioral therapy, in the reduction of early maladaptive schemas (F=33.06; P&lt;0.001) and anxiety (F=11.26; P&lt;0.001) Patients were more effective. Conclusion: Compared to cognitive-behavioral therapy, schema therapy treatment based on psycho-social issues can play an effective role in reducing the early maladaptive schemas and anxiety of these patients.

The effectiveness of paradoxical therapy on relational practical obsessive-compulsive symptoms

Background and Aim: Previous studies have shown that compared to the general population, patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder often have disorders in relational functioning, including interpersonal problems, mistrust, and unhappiness in interpersonal relationships, and the probability of marriage is lower and increased. Marital problems, ambivalence, severe interpersonal conflicts, revenge, and sexual problems are common. Thus, the present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of paradoxical therapy on relational practical obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Methods: In terms of the practical purpose and data collection method, the current research design was a single-case experiment of the multiple baseline type, sometimes called a single-subject experiment or a time series experiment. It is an experiment that consists of intensive research on a person or several people who are considered a single group. Among the single-subject designs, the baseline-intervention-follow-up (A-B-C) design was used in this study. The research community included all undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students aged 20 to 45 years in Tehran. For sampling, six people were selected from the available sampling method and completed the treatment sessions. The clinical interview was used to diagnose the relational obsessive-compulsive disorder and its differential diagnoses. Quantitative data was collected by completing questionnaires and research scales in three phases: baseline, intervention, and follow-up. Results: The statistical analysis of the research data showed that the hypothesis of the research entitled "Paradoxical psychotherapy improves ego strength in relational obsessive-compulsive patients" was confirmed with 56.5% overall improvement. Conclusion: Based on the findings of the visual analysis of six participants and the results of the strong effect size and the improvement rate of relational obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms, the results of the paradox treatment can be considered very effective.

Comparison of cognitive strategies for emotion regulation, impulsivity and suicidal ideation in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar people disorder and normal people

Aim: The aim was to compare cognitive strategies for emotion regulation, impulsivity, and suicidal ideation in patients with obsessive-compulsive, bipolar disorder and normal individuals.&#x0D; Methods: This was a causal-comparative study. The statistical population included people who were diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder and bipolar disorder in city of Semnan, Iran in the year 1400. According to the opinion of a psychiatrist, as well as normal people who were not diagnosed with a disorder based on self-report and using a checklist of symptoms of mental disorders. Fifty obsessive-compulsive patients and 50 bipolar patients, as well as 50 normal individuals were selected through available sampling. Granfsky Emotion Cognitive Regulation Questionnaire, Barthes Impulsivity, and Beck Suicidal Thought were administered. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to analyze the data.&#x0D; Findings: Cognitive regulation of emotion, impulsivity and suicidal ideation are significantly different in the three groups. The mean scores of the patient group were higher than the normal group in the negative components of emotion regulation, impulsivity and suicidal ideation (p&lt;0.05). In the positive of emotion regulation, the mean scores of the bipolar group were higher than the obsession (p&lt;0.05). In negative regulating emotion, the mean scores of obsessive-compulsive patients were higher than those of bipolar disorder (p&lt;0.05). Also, the mean scores of obsessive-compulsive group was higher than bipolar in cognitive impulsivity (p&lt;0.05 ); but there was no difference between the obsessive-compulsive and bipolar groups in motor components and lack of planning (p&gt;0.05).&#x0D; Conclusion: Holding educational workshops to minimize the damage caused by failure in emotion regulation, impulsivity, and suicidal thoughts in obsessive-compulsive and bipolar disorder sufferers, designing support programs such as training impulse management skills, using adaptive emotion regulation strategies, planning skills and decision-making in the general population as well as obsessive-compulsive and bipolar patients, as well as the appropriate treatment plan to prevent the exacerbation or recurrence of patients' symptoms can be effective.

Complexity changes in functional state dynamics suggest focal connectivity reductions.

The past two decades have seen an explosion in the methods and directions of neuroscience research. Along with many others, complexity research has rapidly gained traction as both an independent research field and a valuable subdiscipline in computational neuroscience. In the past decade alone, several studies have suggested that psychiatric disorders affect the spatiotemporal complexity of both global and region-specific brain activity (Liu et al., 2013; Adhikari et al., 2017; Li et al., 2018). However, many of these studies have not accounted for the distributed nature of cognition in either the global or regional complexity estimates, which may lead to erroneous interpretations of both global and region-specific entropy estimates. To alleviate this concern, we propose a novel method for estimating complexity. This method relies upon projecting dynamic functional connectivity into a low-dimensional space which captures the distributed nature of brain activity. Dimension-specific entropy may be estimated within this space, which in turn allows for a rapid estimate of global signal complexity. Testing this method on a recently acquired obsessive-compulsive disorder dataset reveals substantial increases in the complexity of both global and dimension-specific activity versus healthy controls, suggesting that obsessive-compulsive patients may experience increased disorder in cognition. To probe the potential causes of this alteration, we estimate subject-level effective connectivity via a Hopf oscillator-based model dynamic model, the results of which suggest that obsessive-compulsive patients may experience abnormally high connectivity across a broad network in the cortex. These findings are broadly in line with results from previous studies, suggesting that this method is both robust and sensitive to group-level complexity alterations.

Guilt Feelings in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: An Investigation between Diagnostic Groups.

Guilt plays a role in various forms of psychopathology. However, different types of guilt might be involved in different mental disorders. Obsessive-compulsive (OC) patients are prone to a type of guilt in which the violation of an internalized moral norm is necessary and sufficient, whereas data suggest that depression might be linked to more interpersonal types of guilt. However, the extent to which a specific guilt phenomenology is involved in each condition is yet to be determined. Here we assessed the association between different types of guilt and different diagnostic groups. Two clinical samples (33 OCD and 35 non-OCD) filled in the Moral Orientation Guilt Scale (MOGS) along with other OCD and depression measures. Regression was employed to test group differences in the MOGS subscales and to test the influence of MOGS subscales on OCD and depression levels. Results confirm that different types of guilt might be implicated in different psychopathological conditions. Specifically, moral norm violation guilt is more present in OC patients than in other disorders. Depression seems to be associated with different guilt feelings depending on the psychopathological condition, specifically in non-OC patients, with types of guilt involving a “victim”, supporting the accounts viewing interpersonal guilt as involved in the emergence of depressive symptomatology and hyper-altruistic behavior as a vulnerability factor for depression.

Autistic traits and obsessive-compulsive personality traits in OCD patients

BackgroundStudies have reported a high prevalence of autism spectrum disorder in young people with obsessive-compulsive disorder with a negative effect on psychosocial functioning. However, the extent to which autism spectrum disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder traits overlap and by inference, the extent to which these separately classified Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders disorders five (obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, personality disorder, autism spectrum disorder, neurodevelopmental disorder) may share a nosological relationship has not so far been systematically investigated in clinical samples.This study is done to detect the frequency of obsessive-compulsive personality traits and autistic traits in a sample of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.ResultsResults revealed that younger patients had significantly more severe and extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder scores. Moreover, Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-II) and Autism Spectrum Quotient analysis revealed that younger patients had a significantly higher prevalence of personality traits and autistic traits respectively. Statistical significance as many patients with severe and extreme Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale showed criteria of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. No association of statistical significance was found between obsessive-compulsive disorder severity and autistic trait presence. On the contrary, statistical significance was found between autistic traits and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.ConclusionsThere is the presence of comorbidity of obsessive-compulsive personality traits and autism spectrum traits in obsessive-compulsive disorder patients. Obsessive-compulsive personality traits prevalence in obsessive-compulsive disorder patients was higher than in autistic traits. Several factors of genetic predisposition, environmental factors like education and marital status, employment, and intrinsic factors as age of patients all exhibited a pivotal role in obsessive-compulsive disorder prevalence and severity.

A randomized clinical trial: Comparison of group acceptance and commitment therapy with drug on quality of life and depression in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Background:Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is one of the newest treatment strategies that has been developed rapidly to improve the treatment of patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the effect of ACT and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) drugs on the severity of depression symptoms and quality of life (QOL) in obsessive–compulsive patients.Materials and Methods:A randomized clinical trial with a control group was conducted including 27 patients with OCD. Based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 criteria for OCD diagnosis, participants were recruited from Tamasha Counseling Center and obsessive–compulsive clinic in the Psychosomatic Research Center in Isfahan, Iran. Selected patients were allocated to two groups (14 in ACT the group and 13 in the drug group with SSRI with a simple random sampling method. ACT group was treated by an ACT therapist in eight 1-h sessions. Data were collected by the World Health Organization QOL Questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) and Depression subscale of DASS-42 at admission, after the intervention, and 3 months thereafter. Therapists and evaluators were blind to each other's work. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance with repeated measures method using IBM SPSS Statistics software (V 23, IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA).Results:Results revealed that both treatments (ACT and SSRIs drug therapy) had significant impacts on reducing depression subscales scores and increasing WHOQOL-BREF scores at posttreatment (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in QOL scores between the two groups after the intervention and follow-up (P > 0.05). Nevertheless, drug therapy presented a significantly greater improvement in depression scores of patients than those resulting from ACT (P = 0.005). The persistence of treatment effects continued after 3 months (follow-up) in both groups.Conclusion:ACT is equal to SSRIs drug therapy in terms of improving QOL in patients with OCD. However, SSRIs are more effective in treating depression in obsessive–compulsive patients. It may be presumed that ACT without any chemical side effect is equal to drug and is preferred for patients who either cannot use drugs or prefer not to have a drug treatment.