Obsessive-compulsive tendencies and undermined confidence are related to reliance on proxies for internal states in a false feedback paradigm

Lazarov, Amit; Dar, Reuven; Liberman, Nira; Oded, Yuval

doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2011.07.007

Cited by 62 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 78 publications

(118 reference statements)

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“…Moreover, the present study demonstrates that our previous findings not only generalize to clinical OCD but are in fact much more prominent in this population compared with what we ob served in our analogue samples of high and low OC participants. For example, the effect of viewing the false feedback, which can be calculated by subtracting the VAS score of the downward phase from that of the upward phase, was 41.85 for the OCD participants in the present study as compared with 17.1 for high OC partici pants in our previous studies (Lazarov et al, 2012a).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 42%

Seeking proxies for internal states in obsessive–compulsive disorder.

Lazarov

Liberman

Hermesh

et al. 2014

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

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Pervasive doubts are a central feature of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We have theorized that obsessive doubts can arise in relation to any internal state and lead to compensatory reliance on more discernible substitutes (proxies), including rules and rituals. Previous findings corroborated this hypothesis, but were based on students with high and low OCD tendencies and did not control for anxiety. The present study tested our hypothesis in OCD participants using both anxiety disorders and nonclinical controls. Twenty OCD participants, 20 anxiety disorders participants, and 20 nonclinical participants underwent 2 experimental procedures. In the first, participants had to produce specific levels of muscle tension with and without the aid of biofeedback. In the second, participants were asked to subjectively assess their own muscle tension after viewing preprogrammed false feedback showing either increasing or decreasing levels of muscle tension. As predicted, OCD participants were less accurate than anxiety disorder and nonclinical participants in producing designated levels of muscle tension when biofeedback was not available and more likely to request the biofeedback when given the opportunity to do so. In the false feedback procedure, OCD participants were more influenced by the false biofeedback when judging their own level of muscle tension compared with the 2 controls groups. In both procedures, anxiety disorder participants did not differ from the nonclinical controls. These results support the hypothesis that individuals with OCD have attenuated access to and reduced confidence in their internal states, and that this deficit is specific to OCD and not attributable to anxiety.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 42%

Seeking proxies for internal states in obsessive–compulsive disorder.

Lazarov

Liberman

Hermesh

et al. 2014

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

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“…As suggested by Toffolo et al (2013), an alternative explanation can be derived from the work of Lazarov, Dar, Liberman, and Oded, 2012a, 2012b, and Lazarov, Dar, Oded, and Liberman, 2010. They showed that people with high OC tendencies seem to lack a subjective conviction regarding internal states, and therefore have to rely on external proxies, such as rules and procedures.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncertainty, checking, and intolerance of uncertainty in subclinical obsessive compulsive disorder: An extended replication

Toffolo

Hout

Engelhard

et al. 2014

Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders

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a b s t r a c tRecently, Toffolo, van den Hout, Hooge, Engelhard, and Cath (2013, 1, 103-109) showed that individuals with subclinical OCD (OC þ) respond with more checking behavior to mildly uncertain situations than individuals with low OC tendencies (OC À ). The present study aimed to replicate and extend these findings by measuring Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU), and including the whole range of OC tendencies in a correlation analysis. Participants filled out the Obsessive Compulsive Inventory Revised and Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale and performed a visual search task. This task contained 50 search displays, in which participants indicated whether a target was "present" or "absent". Target-present trials were straightforward, but target-absent trials were ambiguous, because participants had to rely on not having overlooked the target. Results revealed that target-absent trials induced more uncertainty than targetpresent trials. Furthermore, OC þ participants checked longer than OC À participants in target-absent but not target-present trials. This could not be explained by higher IU in OC þ participants. There were no differences in number of fixations in absent and present trials between the groups. Finally, when looking at the whole range of OC tendencies, there was a positive relation between OC tendencies and checking behavior. The findings (partly) replicated those of Toffolo et al. (2013) and add to their robustness.

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“…The rationale for this intervention was explained as incorporating external stimuli in the participants' natural environment to reinforce ERP-related behaviors. Some research has indicated that patients with elevated OCD symptoms are more dependent on external stimuli, compared to healthy controls, in their information processing (Lazarov et al 2010(Lazarov et al , 2012. Thus, we considered it more likely that the participants would continue ERP if they had a friend or relative who was involved and reminded the participants to do their ERP exercises.…”

Section: Booster Treatmentmentioning

confidence: 99%