Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 May;50(3):621-629.
doi: 10.1016/j.beth.2018.10.002. Epub 2018 Oct 9.

Is Heightened Disgust Propensity Truly a Risk Factor for Contamination-Related Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

Affiliations

Is Heightened Disgust Propensity Truly a Risk Factor for Contamination-Related Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

Gabriele Melli et al. Behav Ther. 2019 May.

Abstract

Disgust propensity (DP) has been conceptualized as a stable personality trait that confers risk for contamination-related OCD (C-OCD). However, the extent to which DP leads to the subsequent development of C-OCD is unclear. In fact, the presence of C-OCD might lead to an increase in DP rather than the inverse. The present study was aimed to test this hypothesis in a large clinical sample of OCD patients (≥ 21 years of age) with (C-OCD; n = 56) and without (NC-OCD; n = 103) contamination-related symptoms that completed measures of OCD symptoms, depression, anxiety, and DP. DP was assessed twice, in reference to the present situation (T1) and to when the participant was 18 years old (T0). The two groups did not significantly differ in DP at T0. However, C-OCD participants reported higher DP scores than NC-OCD at T1. Furthermore, the T1 vs T0 difference in DP was significant only in the C-OCD group. Subsequent analyses also showed that T1 DP levels, but not T0 levels, significantly predicted contamination-related symptoms. Despite study limitations, these findings question the role of DP as a risk factor for C-OCD.

Keywords: OCD; contamination fear; disgust; disgust propensity; obsessive-compulsive disorder.

PubMed Disclaimer

Supplementary concepts

LinkOut - more resources