Temperament and Character Profiles in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

The present study attempts a comparison between Obsessive Compulsive Disorder patients with healthy normal controls using Temperament and Character Inventory as the measure of personality dimensions. Forty Obsessive Compulsive Disorder patients, who met the criteria of DSM IV TR, and had 15 or above score on the Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, were given Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale and Temperament and Character Inventory. A group of forty normal controls, who had a zero score on General Health Questionnaire-5, was also tested with the help of the above mentioned measures. The Obsessive Compulsive Disorder patients and normal controls were matched in terms of their age and IQ as measured by Alexander Pass Along Performance Test of Intelligence. The findings revealed that the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder patients had significantly higher score on Harm Avoidance, but significantly lower scores on self directedness and cooperativeness in comparison to healthy normal controls.Findings also revealed that the severity of Obsessive Compulsive symptoms predicted the severity of depression and low-self-directedness in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder patients.