The Role of Disgust and Threat in Contamination-Related Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder. Issue 1 (11th April 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mulheron, Leanne; Jones, Mairwen K.
• Is Part Of: Behaviour change. Volume 38:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 40
• Page End: 59
• Publication Date: 2021-04-11
• Subjects: OCD, -- anxiety, -- disgust, -- threat; Behavior therapy -- Periodicals; Behavior modification -- Periodicals; 616.8914205
• DOI: 10.1017/bec.2021.1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0813-4839

Abstract

Abstract: Theoretical models suggest that the emotion disgust or threat overestimates are important in the aetiology and maintenance of contamination-based obsessive–compulsive disorder. In the current study, both threat and disgust were manipulated and 115 non-clinical participants (mean age 20.46 years, 94 females) were randomly allocated to one of four conditions: high-disgust/low-threat ( n = 29), high-disgust/high-threat ( n = 29), low-disgust/low-threat ( n = 27), and low-disgust/high-threat ( n = 30). Participants completed a hierarchical Behavioural Avoidance Task (BAT). Those in the high-threat and high-disgust conditions completed less BAT steps and showed more latency to begin each step than those in the low-threat and low-disgust conditions. A significant interaction effect was observed for the high-disgust/high-threat condition as significantly more task avoidance was found. However, handwashing duration was not significantly different between the high and low-disgust conditions or the high and low-threat conditions. The overall low mean washing duration of 30 s possibly due to the testing conditions and/or the ethnic heterogeneity of the sample may account for these results. There were also no significant differences in the level of anxiety for participants in the high-threat compared with the low-threat conditions. It is possible that anxiety remained relatively low across conditions as a result of the graduated BAT. Future research and theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.