Core dysfunctional beliefs in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder are shared with patients with anxiety disorder according to the revised Beliefs Questionnaire

Findings on the specificity of dysfunctional beliefs for OCD are heterogeneous. A preliminary study using the Beliefs Questionnaire (BQ) showed that patients with OCD exhibit more overall dysfunctional beliefs compared to patients with depression, but only in two specific dysfunctional beliefs. Yet, evidence for this specificity in patients with OCD in comparison to anxious controls is still lacking. The present study aimed to investigate dysfunctional beliefs (as assessed by the revised version of the BQ; BQ-R) in an OCD sample compared to anxious controls. Eighty-five patients with OCD (without a comorbid diagnosis of an anxiety disorder; 61.2% female and M = 35.27 years of age [SD = 12.65]) were compared to 20 patients with anxiety disorder (without a comorbid diagnosis of OCD; 75.0% female and M = 32.45 years of age [SD = 11.23]) on the BQ-R. No differences were found on the BQ-R total score or its subscales between samples except for the subscale on depressive thinking pattern (d = 0.658), where the anxiety sample showed higher scores. However, exploratory analyses revealed higher values on specific items of the BQ-R for the OCD-sample. The present study was able to address the still missing comparison in dysfunctional beliefs of patients with OCD to patients with anxiety disorder. To conclude, the results indicate that core dysfunctional beliefs in OCD are shared with patients with anxiety disorder. The higher values on the subscale on depressive thinking patterns for anxious controls might reflect the more pronounced depressive symptomatology.