Incompleteness and harm avoidance in OCD symptom dimensions

Are obsessive–compulsive symptom dimensions familial in nonclinical individuals?

“…Symmetry/ordering is the OC dimension that has been more often associated with tics and TS, [45] an earlier onset, [46] and male predominance. [47] Recent data suggest that Symmetry/ordering symptoms are more related to the concept of ''incompleteness'' than to the concept of ''harm avoidance'' [48,49] and may represent a ''noncognitive'' OCD subtype, i.e., patients whose beliefs about the symptoms are generally not dysfunctional. [50] Although we found specificity in the association of Symmetry/ordering symptoms (i.e.…”

Feeling of doing in obsessive–compulsive checking

“…In addition, the OCI-R alone overlooks the motivational aspects of checking symptoms, whereas some studies have yielded evidence that checking symptoms are motivationally heterogeneous (e.g., Ecker & Gönner, 2008;Tolin, Woods, & Abramowitz, 2003). Thus, what remains unclear is whether checking symptoms, as measured by the OCI-R checking subscale, reflect a tendency to re-enact actions because of a lack of an immediate feeling of satisfaction (incompleteness) or compulsive checking of safety actions in order to avoid potential threat (harm avoidance).…”

“…Current cognitive models suggest that compulsive behaviors are likely to be accompanied either by the aim of preventing threatening events (i.e., harm avoidance; Rachman, 1997;Salkovskis, 1985) or by a particular sensation ''that something's wrong" with an action or the environment (incompleteness; Coles, Frost, Heimberg, & Rhéaume, 2003). Interestingly, the prevalence of these two core dimensions seems to vary across the different subtypes of OCD: harm avoidance may particularly characterize washing and obsessing symptoms (Tolin, Brady, & Hannan, 2008), while incompleteness may be especially associated with checking (Coles et al, 2003;Tolin et al, 2008) and ordering (Ecker & Gönner, 2008).…”

Looking for Outcomes: The Experience of Control and Sense of Agency in Obsessive-compulsive Behaviors

“…Indeed, harm avoidance may particularly be reflected in washing and obsessing symptoms [26]. Incompleteness, on the other hand, may be especially associated with checking [26,27] and ordering [26,28]. Furthermore, distinct neural correlates have been associated with these different OCD subtypes.…”