Although several measures of obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms exist, most are limited in that they are not consistent with the most recent empirical findings on the nature and dimensional structure of obsessions and compulsions. In the present research, the authors developed and evaluated a measure called the Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DOCS) to address limitations of existing OC symptom measures. The DOCS is a 20-item measure that assesses the four dimensions of OC symptoms most reliably replicated in previous structural research. Factorial validity of the DOCS was supported by exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of 3 samples, including individuals with OC disorder, those with other anxiety disorders, and nonclinical individuals. Scores on the DOCS displayed good performance on indices of reliability and validity, as well as sensitivity to treatment and diagnostic sensitivity, and hold promise as a measure of OC symptoms in clinical and research settings.

Pandemic illnesses, such as the H1N1 influenza (swine flu) are often highly publicized in the mass media and can be associated with high levels of anxiety and compensatory behavior (e.g., using hand sanitizers). The present research sought to investigate the psychological processes associated with swine-flu related anxiety during the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009-2010. Participants were 315 college students who completed survey measures between September 25th 2009 and February 16th 2010, which encompassed the peak of flu season and a time of intense media attention to this particular outbreak. Data revealed that anxiety in response to the swine flu was common in the sample. Regression analysis indicated that health anxiety, contamination fears and disgust sensitivity were significant predictors of swine flu-related anxiety. Implications for how concerns over pandemic illnesses such as the swine flu can be conceptualized and clinically managed are discussed.

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Context Recent evidence from linkage analyses and follow-up candidate gene studies supports the involvement of SLC1A1, which encodes the neuronal glutamate transporter, in the development of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Objectives To determine the role of genetic variation of SLC1A1 in OCD in a large case-control study and to better understand how SLC1A1 variation affects functionality. Design A case-control study. Setting Publicly accessible SLC1A1 expression and genotype data. Patients Three hundred twenty-five OCD probands and 662 ethnically and sex-matched controls. Interventions Probands were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, and the Saving Inventory–Revised. Six single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped. Multiple testing corrections for single-marker and haplotype analyses were performed by permutation. Results Gene expression of SLC1A1 is heritable in lymphoblastoid cell lines. We identified 3 SNPs in or near SLC1A1 that correlated with gene expression levels, 1 of which had previously been associated with OCD. Two of these SNPs also predicted expression levels in human brain tissue, and 1 SNP was further functional in reporter gene studies. Two haplotypes at 3 SNPs, rs3087879, rs301430, and rs7858819, were significantly associated with OCD after multiple-testing correction and contained 2 SNPs associated with expression levels. In addition, another SNP correlating with SLC1A1 gene expression, rs3933331, was associated with an OCD-hoarding subphenotype as assessed by 2 independent, validated scales. Conclusions Our case-control data corroborate previous smaller family-based studies that indicated that SLC1A1 is a susceptibility locus for OCD. The expression and genotype database–mining approach we used provides a potentially useful complementary approach to strengthen future candidate gene studies in neuropsychiatric and other disorders.

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic, causing substantial anxiety. One potential factor in the spread of anxiety in response to a pandemic threat is emotion contagion, the finding that emotional experiences can be socially spread through conscious and unconscious pathways. Some individuals are more susceptible to social contagion effects and may be more likely to experience anxiety and other mental health symptoms in response to a pandemic threat. Therefore, we studied the relationship between emotion contagion and mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. We administered the Emotion Contagion Scale (ESC) along with a measure of anxiety in response to COVID-19 (modified from a previous scale designed to quantify fear of the Swine Flu outbreak) and secondary outcome measures of depression, anxiety, stress, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. These measures were completed by a large (n = 603) student sample in the United States. Data were collected in the months of April and May of 2020 when the fear of COVID-19 was widespread. Results revealed that greater susceptibility to emotion contagion was associated with greater concern about the spread of COVID-19, more depression, anxiety, stress, and OCD symptoms. Consumption of media about COVID-19 also predicted anxiety about COVID-19, though results were not moderated by emotion contagion. However, emotion contagion did moderate the relationship between COVID-19-related media consumption and elevated OCD symptoms. Although limited by a cross-sectional design that precludes causal inferences, the present results highlight the need for study of how illness fears may be transmitted socially during a pandemic.