Positive impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the treatment of contamination fear in obsessive-compulsive patients in Armenia

Objective: To observe the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on patients with contamination fear at obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and how this can be used to improve psychotherapeutic treatment. Materials and methods: 33 patients were involved, divided into 2 groups, in one of which we used additional experimental features of psychotherapy. OCD total condition and separate symptoms were assessed using Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS). Results: Patients, included in Group A, showed significantly better improvement in both total Y-BOCS score, as well as in particular symptoms connected with so-called mental contamination. Conclusions: Adding reality-based and emotionally significant features of contamination control and prevention to standard cognitive-behavioral therapy protocol may seriously improve outcomes in the treatment of mental contamination obsessions. The period of pandemics, as well as post-pandemic, can be used for intense further research in this area in a larger selection of patients. Long-term follow-up is recommended to clarify the stability of positive changes.

Sensitivity to being betrayed and betraying others in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Objectives Mental contamination (MC) describes subjective internal feelings of ‘dirtiness’ which are experienced in the absence of direct physical contact/contaminants. There isevidence of a link between MC in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and the experience of past betrayals. However, it has also been noted that “perpetrators” also experience MC. We aimed to replicate the previous finding of specificity of OCD for sensitivity to being betrayed, and to extend this by evaluating whether people with high MC OCD are also relatively more sensitive to the idea that they might betray others compared to those with low levels of MC OCD.Design A cross-sectional, between-groups design was used.Method Four groups, high MC OCD (N= 60), low MC OCD (N=61), depression (N=28) andnon-clinical controls (N=46) completed online questionnaires. Participants were recruitedthrough the National Health Service (NHS) and social media.Results Relative to all groups, the high MC OCD group had significantly higher scores both for betrayal sensitivity and sensitivity to betraying others. The depression group showed similar levels to low MC OCD in betrayal sensitivity but were significantly lower (and comparable to non-clinical controls) in sensitivity to betraying others.Conclusions Betrayal sensitivity occurs trans-diagnostically. There may be a specific linkbetween the development of OCD and the perception of betraying others, perhaps linked to the trauma of being betrayed making those so affected more likely to worry about their own responsibility for betraying others.