Mental Contamination in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Associations With Childhood Trauma, Alexithymia, and Clinical Symptomatology

Our findings suggest that mental contamination in patients with OCD may be associated with childhood trauma and, in particular, alexithymic features rather than with OCD symptom severity or specific symptom subtypes. Future studies employing longitudinal and experimental designs are recommended to examine the causal nature of the relationships between mental contamination, alexithymia, and childhood trauma.