Obsessive Personality Traits Research Articles

Obsessional personality traits and risk for bipolar affective disorder: An offspring study.

Obsessional personality traits and risk for bipolar affective disorder: An offspring study.

Obsessive-compulsive adolescents and their parents: a psychometric study.

The present study examined obsessive personality traits and achievement expectations of parents with an obsessive-compulsive adolescent. The Leyton Obsessional Inventory (LOI) and rating scales of occupational and educational aspirations and expectations were administered to both parents and the adolescent of 12 families with an obsessional adolescent and 10 families having an anxious, nonobsessional son or daughter. The parents' LOI scores were similar in the two groups, though higher than normal adults on the trait and resistance scales. The obsessional adolescents perceived their parents to hold significantly higher career demands for them than the anxious adolescents.

Obsessional personality traits and risk for bipolar affective disorder: an offspring study.

Obsessional personality traits and risk for bipolar affective disorder: an offspring study.

The comparative psychopathology of anorexia nervosa: Obsessive-compulsive disorder or phobia?

The current study investigates the similarities and differences between anorexic restricters, anorexic bulimics, female obsessives, agoraphobics, social phobics, and specific phobics. Measures of psychopathology were self-ratings of adjustment, the IPAT, FSS, MPI, and LOI. Results indicated that persons suffering from anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa were more similar to obsessives than to phobics with respect to obsessional personality traits and neuroticism. Additional research is needed in the examination of the central preoccupation in order to understand the differentiation of the various disorders and to what extent anorexia nervosa is a nosological entity.

Relationship between obsessional personality traits, neuroticism and extraversion in normal subjects

On the basis of the available literature, the relationships between obsessional personality traits, neuroticism, and extraversion are unclear. Two studies on recovered depressed patients yielded conflicting results. 1,2 In our present study we attempted to investigate this issue by using a large group of normal individuals.

Obsessional personality traits and ABO blood types.

The relation of ABO blood types to obsessional personality traits, as measured by the Leyton Obsessional Inventory (LOI), was studied in a sample of 600 normal individuals. High scorers of the LOI trait portion demonstrated a significantly lower incidence of phenotype O and a significantly higher incidence of phenotypes AB, A and B, taken together, compared to those of a general population sample and the entire study group. Findings of the present study, in conjunction with previous findings concerning a lower incidence of phenotype O and a higher incidence of phenotype A in obsessive compulsive patients, could be interpreted as indicating that phenotype O may be associated with personality traits hindering the development of obsessive-compulsive symptomatology.

Relations of obsessional traits to anxiety in patients with ulcerative colitis.

The obsessional personality traits and the "state" and "trait" anxiety, measured by means of self-rating inventories, were correlated in a group of patients with ulcerative colitis and a group of anxiety neurotics. The results suggest that patients with ulcerative colitis demonstrate strong positive trends, contrary to neurotics who show negative or very weak correlations, during the active period of their illness. These findings are discussed and some hypotheses concerning the different association of anxiety to obsessionality between the two groups are presented.

Pre-morbid personality traits and responsiveness to flooding in obsessive-compulsive patients

Clinical and psychophysiological assessments were carried out before and after completion of flooding treatment in two groups of obsessive-compulsive patients, matched for age and duration of the illness but differing in pre-morbid obsessional personality traits. Patients with such traits appear to demonstrate a specific autonomic sensitivity to flooding, probably related to either the reduction of anxiety after treatment or to certain qualities of the treatment itself. Significant changes after treatment regarding neutral stimuli and attitude ratings of untreated obsessional manifestations suggest a more global response to flooding in such patients. Some suggestions for further research are presented.

Intrapair difference in personality traits, and emotional and social adjustment in monozygotic twins.

During the last decade, there has been a growing interest in the advantages that MZ twin pairs offer for studying the effect of environmental factors on the development of emotional disturbances. Much of this research has been aimed at investigating the relationship between childhood differences and later discordance with regard to schizophrenia in MZ twin pairs. A few studies have used similar methodology to investigate the development of neurotic reactions. There has been very little work dealing with the causes of discordance in the normal personality development of MZ twin pairs. The paper presents some of the results from a larger twin project which show the relationship between childhood differences and differences in adulthood. The study examined differences in oral, obsessive, and hysterical personality traits, as well as differences in phobic fears, general neurotic symptomatology, occupational and marriage adjustment in 50 relatively unselected MZ twin pairs. The results show that many of the same childhood differences which have been reported to be associated with the discordance found in regard to schizophrenia and neuroses, are also related to differences in personality structure, emotional and social adjustment in less disturbed MZ twin pairs. Other childhood differences, however, seem to be more specifically related either to neurotic or to normal personality development, pointing to the importance of studying the relationship between specific intrapair differences in childhood and differences in various areas of later personality development.

A depressive syndrome responsive to lithium. An analysis of 20 cases.

The authors analyze a series of 20 patients seen over the past 4 years who have shown a dramatic improvement following the introduction of lithium carbonate to their therapy. The results indicate that these patients showed a consistent syndrome with the following features: a) anergic endogenous depression; b) positive family history in first degree probands; c) obsessional personality traits and symptoms; d) hypochondriasis and somatic symptoms; e) failure to respond to previous antidepressant therapy with tricyclic and MAOI compounds as well as ECT. A previous study by Gittleson showed that one third of a series of psychotic depressives admitted to the Maudsley Hospital, London, also displayed obsessional symptoms and hypochondriasis. These patients, however, seemed to do as well with standard antidepressant treatment as a control group of psychotic depressives without obsessional features. However, in this series, there was a 7 per cent residue whose obsessional symptoms worsened, even after recovery from their depression. The authors' group of patients represented approximately 3 per cent of all psychotic depressives seen over the 4-year period and could, therefore, coincide with Gittleson's residue. The mean age of onset of illness in the authors' depressive group was 45.5 years, and this finding, coupled with the high incidence of psychotic depression in first degree relatives, indicates that these patients were suffering from a psychotic depression modified by personality traits, rather than an atypical obsessional neurosis. The consistency of clinical features and specificity of response to lithium therapy appear to indicate that this is a clearly definable clinical syndrome worthy of further investigation.

Obsessional scores and subjective general psychiatric complaints of patients with duodenal ulcer or ulcerative colitis

The Leyton Obsessional Inventory (LOI), together with 46 questions taken from Sections M-R or the Cornell Medical Index, were administered to 30 inpatients suffering from duodenal ulcer and to 30 patients admitted for ulcerative colitis to test the hypothesis that the latter have more obsessional traits than the former. The results indicated that although the two groups did not differ much in their obsessive personality traits, the ulcerative colitis patients were significantly more worried and concerned about them. None of the socio-cultural factors measured, which are known from other studies to influence these obsessive scores, was associated with the differences found. An analysis of the individual LOI items between the two groups showed that the ulcerative colitis patients were more indecisive, and also more morose, more rigid and more punctual than the duodenal ulcer patients, i.e. traits traditionally associated with obsessional personality types. The two groups did not differ on the Cornell score.

A study of genetic factors, childhood bereavement, and premorbid personality traits in patients with anancastic endogenous depression.

From a sample of 1,005 patients admitted to the State Hospital in Aarhus for the first time during the period 1950-1959 and who had been diagnosed as suffering from manic-depressive psychosis or endogenous depression (affective psychoses), a subsample of 104 manic-depressive aptients with anancastic symptoms in the history were selected. The 104 probands were individually matched with 104 non-anancastic probands with affective psychoses. The anancastic probands and the controls who were still living were seen personally at the follow-up. Information concerning the psychiatric history of 945 first degree relatives of the anancastic probands and 1,000 first degree relatives of the controls were obtained. During the search for factors which could be used to distinguish affective psychoses with anancastic symptoms from affective psychoses without these traits, a positive correlation was found between the presence of anancasma and the following factors: (a) premorbid obsessive personality traits; (b) traumatic environmental factors in childhood; (c) a tendency to monopolarity; (d) a preponderance of monopolar depressions in the family; (e) the presence of secondary cases of anancastic endogenous depression. The findings are compatible with a theory which attributes a pathoplastic effect to the obsessive personality giving rise to anancastic symptomatology in the form of affective psychoses which tend to a unipolar course.

Causality-interpretation and obsessive versus hysterical functioning.

Summary Relationships were predicted between the relative salience of the theme of voluntary control (VC) and the relative predominance of obsessive versus hysterical personality traits, and between the relative salience of VC and the relative predominance of obsessive versus hysterical neurotic symptoms. A coding system for VC was applied to TAT stories written by 89 males and 96 females solicited from undergraduate populations. 20 males and 20 females who scored high on VC and 20 males and 20 females who scored low on VC were given further instruments pertaining to obsessive/hysterical personality traits and neurotic symptoms. As predicted, high VC Ss were significantly more obsessive (or less hysterical) in their personality traits than low VC Ss. Predicted relationships between VC and obsessive/hysterical neurotic symptoms were not significant.

Obsessional symptoms and obsessional personality traits in patients with depressive illnesses.

SUMMARYAn inventory of obsessional symptoms and traits was administered to patients with depressive illnesses while they were ill and again after recovery. They obtained higher scores than normals even when well and their scores increased considerably during episodes of depression in proportion to the depth of the depression. In mania, on the other hand, obsessional symptoms are rare.