Obsessive beliefs in first-degree relatives of patients with OCD: A test of the cognitive vulnerability model

Exploring the Possibility of Shared Familial Diathesis for Personality in OCD Probands

“…Higher neuroticism in FDR compared to FCG may be due to elevated obsessive personality traits in the former, which is in agreement with previous reports of OCD relatives scoring higher on several facets of neuroticism (i.e., anxiety, self-consciousness, vulnerability to stress) and higher incidence of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder in family as compared to controls suggesting a shared familial diathesis. Since Samuels et al (2000) included FDR with OCD, neuroticism could not be established as a vulnerability marker (Rector et al 2009). The findings with unaffected FDR in present study provides a strong argument in favour of a hereditary predisposition of neuroticism and may have been due to their enduring tendency to experience negative emotional states.…”

“…Samuels et al (2000) reported that the case-relatives did not differ with control-relatives in terms of openness, agreeableness or conscientiousness. However, they have been criticized for including FDR with and without OCD, making it unclear whether neuroticism conferred vulnerability to or was simply a correlate of OCD (Rector et al 2009). …”

Obsessive Beliefs and Dimensions of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: An Examination of Specific Associations

“…Descriptive research with the OBQ-44 has yielded some findings that support the basic tenants of the cognitive-behavioral model. For example, Rector et al (2009) recently found that first-degree relatives of patients with early onset OCD scored significantly higher than controls on the inflated responsibility and overestimation of threat OBQ-44 subscale as well as the perfectionism and intolerance of uncertainty subscale. Although this study suggests that first-degree relatives of OCD probands may exhibit obsessive beliefs that place them at risk for OCD, prior research employing cluster analysis has also identified OCD patients who do not have elevated scores on measures of obsessive beliefs (Taylor et al 2006).…”

Individuals With OCD Lack Unrealistic Optimism Bias in Threat Estimation

“…Clare, 2004). Rector and colleagues (Rector, Cassin, Richter, & Burroughs, 2009) found that even healthy relatives of OCD patients exhibited an elevated tendency to overestimate threat as compared to unrelated healthy controls. This indicates that OET might also be an important vulnerability factor for OCD.…”