Specificity of disgust vulnerability in the distinction and treatment of OCD
Section snippets
Sample characteristics
Participants consisted of 30 adults with a diagnosis of GAD, 30 with OCD, and 30 NCCs with no history of an Axis 1 disorder. OCD participants, who mostly (37%) expressed contamination obsessions and washing compulsions, were recruited mainly from the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/Tourette Syndrome Program at Vanderbilt University. GAD and NCC participants were recruited from community advertisements or referrals from the Vanderbilt Adult Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic. The Structured Clinical
Sample characteristics
An independent sample of 40 (21 males) participants with a diagnosis of OCD in an intensive outpatient anxiety disorder treatment program participated in the present study. Diagnoses were based upon the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI; Sheehan et al., 1998). The MINI is a structured clinical interview used to assess 17 Axis I disorders. The MINI was administered by trained and certified master- and doctoral-level clinicians. IRB approval was obtained for procedures and all
General discussion
Several lines of evidence suggest that the tendency to experience disgust may play a role in the development and maintenance of OCD (Cisler et al., 2009, Olatunji et al., 2010a, Olatunji et al., 2010b). However, it is unclear if the disgust vulnerability that may give rise to OCD is best characterized by disgust propensity or disgust sensitivity. Furthermore, before causality can be inferred between disgust and OCD, it is necessary (but certainly not sufficient) to show that OCD patients
Contributors
B. Olatunji designed the study, analyzed data, and wrote first draft of the manuscript. C. Tart assisted with the design of the study, data analysis, and preparation of the manuscript. B. Ciesielski assisted with data collect, data analysis, and preparation of the manuscript. P. McGrath assisted with data management and processing. J. Smits assisted with the design of the study, data analysis, and preparation of the manuscript.
Role of funding source
Funding for this study was supported in part by NIMH Grant RO3MH082210-01A1; the NIMH had no further role in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication.
Conflict of interest
All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgment
None.
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