Pergamon PII S0887-6185(99)00022-5 Health Concerns in Patients With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Abstract—In the present study, individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) who also had excessive health concerns (n 56) were compared with OCD individuals without such concerns (n 343) regarding their OCD symptom severity, types of obses-sions and compulsions, insight into the irrationality of their obsessions, and prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder. While the presence of health concerns did not affect the se-verity of OCD symptoms, the groups differed with respect to the types of symptoms dis-played: those with health concerns had more somatic and harm obsessions, and checking compulsions; whereas those without such concerns had more contamination obsessions andwashing compulsions. The insight of both groups ranged from poor to excellent, yet the number of individuals with poor insight was greater among those with health concerns than those without. Generalized anxiety disorder was also more prevalent among OCD individ