Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to assess the biogenetic temperament and character patterns of obsessive compulsive disorder patients and to investigate realtion between temperament-character patterns and the severity of obsessve-compulsive symptoms.

The subjects were 54 patients who met DSM Ⅳ criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder and 29 controls. All subjects completed Temperament and Character Inventory, which was developed by Cloninger. The patients completed Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory , and was rated by Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale.

The results were as follows.

1) The OCD patients showed significantly high novelty-seeking(t=4.77, df=78, p<0.001) and low self-directedness(t= - 3.03, df=78, p=0.003).

2) The high novelty-seeking and low self-directedness have significant effects on the severity of obsessive compulsive symptoms.

We suggest that high novelty-seeking and low self-directedness are biogenetic temperament and character patterns of OCD patients. We also suggest that these biogenetic temperament and character patterns have some influence on the severity of OCD.