Investigation into the relationship between personality traits and OCD: a replication employing a clinical population

The relationship between obsessional personality traits and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) has long been the subject of debate. Although clinicians have asserted for nearly a hundred years that such a relationship exists, empirical investigations have failed to provide consistent support; however, none of these empirical investigations have undertaken analyses that control for the effect of mood variables. Employing a non-clinical sample, Rosen and Tallis (1995) [Behaviour, Research and Therapy, 4, 445–450] found that when mood variables are taken into account, a unique relationship between obsessional traits and obsessional symptoms emerges. A replication was undertaken on a large group of individuals with OCD. After the effects of depression and anxiety were removed from a correlational analysis, obsessional symptoms were found to be significantly associated with obsessional and passive aggressive traits. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder was not associated with any other grouping of traits as specified in the DSM-III-R (Axis II) classification system.