Interoceptive Sensibility in Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior Motivated by Incompleteness:

Research focusing on interoception may be useful in understanding and treating people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Recently, two core motivational dimensions underlying obsessive-compulsive (OC) behavior have been proposed: harm avoidance (HA) and incompleteness (INC). Incompleteness reduces therapeutic effects and has received increasing attention in recent research. Several studies have noted that difficulty in recognizing interoception has been identified as a variable influencing incompleteness. The present study examines the hypothesis that interoceptive sensibility predicts harm avoidance and incompleteness. The participants, 202 Japanese university students (mean age=21.13 years, SD=1.82), completed questionnaires online. The resulting data were analyzed by hierarchical multiple regression. The results showed that Emotional Awareness and Trusting significantly explained harm avoidance and incompleteness respectively, and that different interceptive sensibilities were associated with harm avoidance and incompleteness. It was suggested that effective treatments for obsessive-compulsive behavior may differ depending on the individual's motivation (harm avoidance or incompleteness). Future longitudinal research may clarify the causal effect.