Adult Attachment, Alexithymia And Clinical Symptoms Of Patients With Obsessive-compulsive Disorder And Exploration Of Pathopsychological Model In OCD

Objective: The objective of this study was to test a hypothesized model of associations between adult attachment, alexithymia and clinical symptoms of patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Alexithymia, a construct involving a deficit in the ability to identify and describe emotions, is thought to develop as a result of childhood interactions with caregivers. We wished to determine how the alexithymia and attachment style worked in OCD. What's more, we wished to explore the pathopsychological model in OCD and gain enlightenment of psychotherapy in OCD.Method: Three hundred and thirty one undergraduates and ninety five patients, aged 18-65, completed questionnaire measures of adult attachment style, alexithymia, Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale and common information.Result:1. There were significant differences in the styles of adult attachment between patients and control group(P＜0.001). The cases of insecure attachment (including anxious, avoidant, fearful and rejecting) in case group were significant more than in control group). There was a significant positive correlation between anxious and avoidant dimensions related attachment and the scores of the Y-BOCS(P＜0.05).2. The total score and the scores of Fl, F2 and F3 of the TAS-20 were significantly higher in the OCD than in the control group(P＜0.05), while the total score and the scores of F2 and F3 of the TAS-20 were not correlated to the score of the Y-BOCS. However, there was a weakly positive correlation between the score of Fl and the score of the Y-BOCS(r=0.217, P=0.035).3. The scores of anxious and avoidant dimensions related to attachment were significantly positively related to the total score and the scores of factors' scores (P＜0.001). There were significant differences among all styles of adult attachment, among which the score of the fearful style was the highest, the scores of the anxious and rejecting styles were higher than of the secure style(P＜0.05).Conclusion:The OCD patients with more insecure adult attachment have significant alexithymia, especially capacities of feeling identify description and coupled with a tendency towards externally orientated and concrete thinking.Our results are consistent with the proposition that alexithymia develops in response to interaction with primary caregivers that also influence infant and adult attachment. Associations between adult attachment and symptoms of OCD may be due in part to disturbances in affect regulation. And our results are consistent with the integrated pathopsychological model in OCD.