Association between clinical variables of obsessive-compulsive disorder and alexithymia, features of temperament and character

It is aimed to compare temperament and character features and levels of alexithymia between a group of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients and healthy individuals in this study.The study comprised 61 OCD patients who had applied to Firat University Hospital Department of Psychiatry had been diagnosed with OCD according to the criteria of study and 65 healthy controls. Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I), Sociodemographic and Clinic Data Form, Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), were administered to both patients and healthy individuals. In addition, Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were applied to patients.In the patients with OCD, with regard to temperament dimension, the mean scores of harm avoidance (HA) was significantly higher, compared to the scores of healthy controls. With regard to character dimension, the mean scores of self-directedness (SD) was significantly lower compared to healthy ones. Scores of difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty expressing feelings, outward-oriented thinking and total scores of alexithymia were found higher in OCD group. However, at the assessment which was done with regard to the situations alexithymia of OCD patients; in the alexithymic patients, with regard to temperament dimension, the mean scores of HA was significantly higher, compared to the scores of non-alexithymic patients. With regard to character dimension, while the mean scores of self transcendence was significantly higher, SD and cooperativeness mean scores of were lower compared to the scores of non-alexithymic patients.The results of our study demostrated that there were diferences between OCD patients group and control group in terms of TCI parameters and the levels of alexitymia. Further studies are required for investigating the causal relations of these differences with OCD.