Schizotypal, Dissociative, and Imaginative Processes in a Clinical OCD Sample

Abstract

Results support the notion that inferential confusion and dissociation are important variables to consider in understanding symptoms of OCD independently from obsessive beliefs and negative mood states.

The role of feared possible selves in obsessive–compulsive and related disorders: A comparative analysis of a core cognitive self‐construct in clinical samples

“…Likewise, confusion between separate categories are exemplified in cognitive distortions such as thought‐action fusion and magical thinking in OCD (Rachman & Shafran, ; cf. Kingdon, Egan, & Rees, ) and thought‐shape fusion in ED (Shafran, Teachman, Kerry, & Rachman, ), as well as recent work on the role inferential confusion of dissociative absorption in OCD (Aardema & Wu, ; O'Connor & Aardema, , ; Paradisis, Aardema, & Wu, ; Soffer‐Dudek, Lassri, Soffer‐Dudek, & Shahar, ).…”

The Inference‐Based Approach (IBA) to the Treatment of Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder: An Open Trial Across Symptom Subtypes and Treatment‐Resistant Cases

“…The more strict methodology used in the current study by establishing these results through a hierarchical regression analysis while controlling for pre‐treatment severity, as well as a lack of shared method variance between the predictors and dependent variable adds further weight to these results. However, future research may wish to include additional moderator variables for treatment outcome to further refine and identify the processes predicting treatment outcome, in particular those revolving around dissociative absorption, which has been found to be uniquely associated with symptoms of OCD (Aardema & Wu, ; Paradisis, Aardema, & Wu, ), negatively related to treatment outcome (Rufer et al ., ) and a longitudinal predictor of OCD development (Soffer‐Dudek, Lassri, Soffer‐Dudek, & Shahar, ). These studies are consistent with the notion of IBA that person crosses over from reality to non‐reality and their own imagination when engaging in obsessions preventing proper attention being directed towards reality‐based criteria allowing for the cessation of compulsive behaviours (O'Connor & Aardema, ).…”

Dissociative absorption: An empirically unique, clinically relevant, dissociative factor

“…In that study, dissociative absorption was the strongest predictor, after inferential confusion, of OCD symptoms (Aardema & Wu, 2011). Recent work showed that inferential confusion and dissociation were the strongest predictors of OCD symptoms in a clinical OCD sample as well (Paradisis, Aardema, & Wu, 2015). However, the latter study did not differentiate between dissociative subscales, but rather used the total DES score.…”