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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Anxiety and Stress Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1532966
The Impact of Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Clinical Outcomes in the Context of Bipolarity
Provisionally accepted
Maciej Żerdziński 1,2*
Marcin Burdzik 2,3*
Paweł Dębski 4,5
Roksana Żmuda 2
Magdalena Piegza 5 Piotr Gorczyca 5- 1 Department of Psychiatry and Sexology, Faculty of Medicine, Academy of Silesia, Katowice, Silesian, Poland
- 2 Dr. Krzysztof Czuma's Psychiatric Center, Katowice, Silesian, Poland
- 3 University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland
- 4 Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Humanitas University in Sosnowiec, Sosnowiec, Poland
- 5 Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medical Sciences in Zabrze, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Silesian, Poland
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by obsessions and compulsions that significantly impair functioning. Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) cooccurs in 17-45% of OCD patients, worsening outcomes across multiple domains. Therefore, we aimed to study the impact of OCPD in more detail by analyzing selected comorbidities, emotional aspects, and sociodemographic data. This study assessed 78 OCD patients (average age 44.9 years, 34.61% OCPD), using Y-BOCS, BABS, BPAQ, BIS-11, YMRS, HDRS-17, and ASEX. Patients with comorbid OCPD had significantly worse outcomes in symptom severity (Y-BOCS = 0.0006), treatment duration (p = 0.0127), insight (BABS, p = 0.0185), aggression (p = 0.0266), impulsivity (p = 0.0469), depression (HDRS, p = 0.0178), mania (YMRS, p = 0.0003), and sexual dysfunction (ASEX, p = 0.008). OCPD was more prevalent in unemployed individuals (p = 0.046) and older patients (p = 0.009). No significant differences were found regarding gender, education, or relationship status. Obsessions and compulsions, such as contamination (p = 0.025), somatic (p = 0.018), ruminations (p = 0.003), and obsessional slowness (p = 0.007), were more common in the OCPD group. In the group with OCPD, aggression and OCD severity were correlated with increased levels of depression, which can be considered potential correlates of bipolarity in the relationship between OCD and OCPD. In conclusion, OCPD significantly worsens clinical outcomes in OCD across emotional, behavioral, and functional dimensions.
Keywords: OCD, OCPD, OCD comorbidity, OCPD comorbidity, Bipolarity, BD predictors, MDD predictors
Received: 22 Nov 2024; Accepted: 01 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Żerdziński, Burdzik, Dębski, Żmuda, Piegza and Gorczyca. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Maciej Żerdziński, Department of Psychiatry and Sexology, Faculty of Medicine, Academy of Silesia, Katowice, Silesian, Poland
Marcin Burdzik, University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland
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