Association of Metacognitive Beliefs, Obsessive Beliefs and Symptom Severity With Quality of Life in Obsessive–Compulsive Patients

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of obsessive beliefs, obsessive–compulsive disorder severity and metacognitive beliefs to the quality of life in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). Sixty one adults with a principal diagnosis of OCD were recruited for the study. Participants were assessed by trained clinicians using an unstructured clinical interview, the Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire, the Yale–Brown Obsessive–Compulsive Scale, the Metacognitive Beliefs Questionnaire and the WHO Quality of Life Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Pearsonʹs of correlation coefficients and multiple regression analyses. Findings indicate that obsessive beliefs, severity total OCD and metacognitive beliefs were associated with total quality of life scores. Regression analysis revealed that while OCD total severity explained 40.1% of the variance in total quality of life, obsessive beliefs (perfectionism/certainty domain) and metacognitions (cognitive self-consciousness and negative beliefs about thoughts in general) explained an additional 13.7%, 7.7% and 5.4% of the variance in QoL. Findings indicate that the metacognitive beliefs associated with OCD symptom severity are different from that associated with quality of life. The implications are that metacognitive therapy aimed at symptom reduction may not necessarily result in improved QoL in OCD patients.