Low psychosocial functioning in obsessive–compulsive disorder and its clinical implications

• Similarly low psychosocial functioning values on PSP in OCD and other severe psychiatric diseases, e.g. schizophrenia.
• Degree of psychosocial functioning closely related to severity of OCD symptoms as well as to sociodemographic parameters.
• Psychosocial interventions specifically adapted for OCD patients should be more developed in clinical practice.

Patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) seem to be impaired in multiple domains of psychosocial functioning, but this is still insufficiently objectively measured. The Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP) offers a validated, reliable and operational tool to assess the psychosocial functioning of patients. Using the PSP scale, examination of psychosocial functioning in a larger sample of outpatients with OCD (n=89) as well as its relationship to their specific psychopathology was conducted. Patients with severe OCD symptoms had low PSP total scores, especially in the sub-items of socially useful activities, personal and social relationships and disturbing and aggressive behaviors. Significant correlation coefficients were found between the PSP total score and the Y-BOCS as well as the Hamilton-Depression score. However, social parameters such as educational and occupational status were only related to PSP and Y-BOCS and not to HAM-D. Patients with OCD show similarly low psychosocial functioning values on the PSP scale to other patients with severe psychiatric diseases, e.g. schizophrenia, as reported in the literature, which was underestimated up to now. This relationship seems to be mainly mediated by comorbid depression. Psychosocial interventions specifically adapted for OCD patients should now be developed more and applied broadly.