Comparing the Quality of Interpersonal Relationships in Individuals With and Without Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Excessive Reassurance Seeking and Perceived Interpersonal Relationships

Objectives Excessive reassurance-seeking (ERS) and interpersonal relationships in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are among the issues that have been the focus of research in recent years. This study seeks to investigate the connection between ERS and the quality of interpersonal relationships in individuals with OCD. Methods The design of this study was causal-comparative. The statistical population included individuals with OCD who visited medical centers in Yazd City, Iran, in the fall of 2018, and healthy people during this period. A total of 204 people (102 individuals with OCD and 102 individuals without OCD) were selected purposefully. Yale-brown obsessive-compulsive scale (Y-BOCS), reassurance seeking questionnaire (ReSQ), and Pierce quality of relationship inventory (QRI) were used to collect data. The obtained data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and Pearson correlation. Results MANOVA showed that the quality of interpersonal relationships (F=9.633, df=1, P<0.05), the quality of interpersonal relationships with spouse (F=6.66, df=1, P<0.05), and the quality of interpersonal relationships with parents (F=8.77, df=1, P<0.05) were significantly different in individuals with and without OCD. In other words, the mean scores of these variables were higher in individuals with OCD. The quality of interpersonal relationships with friends was not significantly different in the two groups. The findings also showed that the quality of interpersonal relationships had a positive and significant relationship with the source (r=0.343, P<0.001), intensity (r=0.251, P<0.05), and accuracy (r=0.285, P<0.05) of excessive reassurance seeking. Conclusion Our results showed that the perceived quality of interpersonal relationships in individuals with OCD is higher than in individuals without it, and their relationship with excessive reassurance seeking is significant. Considering the role of excessive reassurance seeking and family accommodation in the persistence of disease symptoms, identifying the mediating variables of this relationship can be the subject of future research.