Objectives:

A great deal of attention has been paid to comorbid personality disorders in obsessive-compulsive disorder not only from the theoretical perspectives but also from the clinical aspects related to the prediction of the treatment response. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relations of the symptoms dimensions in OCD to the comorbid personality pathology.

Methods:

One-hundred thirty subjects with OCD completed Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) and Personality Disorder Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+). Factor scores of symptom dimensions yielded from a factor analysis of 13 categories in YBOCS symptom checklist were inspected how to be related with the presence of any personality disorder and the PDQ scores for cluster A, B, and C personality pathology.

Results:

The PDQ total score was significantly correlated with aggressive/sexual/religious obsessions, hoarding, and symmetry/ordering dimensions. Te hoarding and repeating/counting dimension were correlated with cluter A pathology, the symmetry/ordering dimension was with cluster B pathology, while the obsessions dimension was globally related to personality disorders of all the clusters.

Conclusion:

These findings add the evidence of the heterogeneity of OCD. The presence of pure obsessions, hoarding, and symmetry/ordering dimensions may need a close screening for comorbid personality disorders and individualized therapeutic strategies. (J Korean Neuropsychiatr Assoc 2004;43(1):46-53)