Background and objectives

Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have reported higher anger and aggression than healthy individuals in previous studies using explicit measures. However, studies using implicit measures have demonstrated mixed results. The aim of the present study was to investigate implicit aggressiveness in OCD using an approach-avoidance task (AAT).

Methods

Seventy-eight patients with OCD and 37 healthy controls underwent structured clinical interviews and measures of anger, OCD, and depressive symptoms as well as a computerized AAT that included aggressive, peaceful, negative, and positive stimuli.

Results

In line with previous studies, patients with OCD reported higher scores on explicit anger. With respect to the implicit measure, repeated measures ANOVAs did not show any differences in mean reaction times for pushing compared to pulling aggressive versus peaceful and negative versus positive words. However, analyses of specific OCD symptom dimensions demonstrated significantly faster reaction times for pulling compared to pushing aggressive words for patients with high scores in the OCD symptom dimensions obsessing and hoarding.

Limitations

Eighty percent of patients with OCD showed psychiatric comorbidities and all were seeking treatment.

Conclusion

The present study supports previous studies reporting the absence of higher aggressiveness in patients with OCD compared to healthy controls using implicit measures. However, in contrast to previous studies, we found an implicit approach bias towards aggressive self-statements for OCD patients scoring high in the symptom dimensions obsessing and hoarding compared to healthy controls. Future studies should further elucidate putative functional relationships between different OCD symptom dimensions and implicit aggressiveness.

中文翻译：

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强迫症患者的内隐攻击性自我概念：接近回避任务的结果

背景和目标

在之前使用明确测量的研究中，强迫症（OCD）患者比健康人表现出更高的愤怒和攻击性。然而，使用隐性测量的研究表明结果好坏参半。本研究的目的是使用回避任务（AAT）来调查强迫症中的隐性攻击性。

方法

78 名强迫症患者和 37 名健康对照者接受了结构化的临床访谈和愤怒、强迫症和抑郁症状的测量，以及包括攻击性、平和、消极和积极刺激在内的计算机化 AAT。

结果

与之前的研究一致，强迫症患者在外显愤怒方面得分较高。对于隐含测量，重复测量方差分析并未显示出与拉动相比，攻击性词与和平词以及消极词与积极词相比，推动与拉动的平均反应时间没有任何差异。然而，对特定强迫症症状维度的分析表明，对于强迫症症状维度痴迷和囤积得分高的患者，与推动攻击性词语相比，拉动的反应时间明显更快。

局限性

百分之八十的强迫症患者表现出精神合并症，并且所有人都在寻求治疗。

结论

本研究支持了先前的研究报告，使用隐式测量方法，与健康对照相比，强迫症患者没有更高的攻击性。然而，与之前的研究相比，我们发现，与健康对照组相比，在强迫症患者的强迫症症状维度上得分较高的强迫症患者存在隐含的偏向于激进的自我陈述。未来的研究应该进一步阐明不同强迫症症状维度和隐性攻击性之间的假定功能关系。