What do low-dysfunctional beliefs obsessive–compulsive disorder subgroups believe?

Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) heterogeneity research identified a patient subgroup that endorsed few of the dysfunctional beliefs posited to be important to development of obsessional disorders. Because of the clinical and theoretical importance of such heterogeneity, we attempted to elucidate the concerns of a low-beliefs OCD subgroup. We evaluated specific metacognitive beliefs and monitoring tendencies assessed on the Metacognitions Questionnaire (MCQ-30; Wells & Cartwright-Hatton, 2004), and feelings of incompleteness (“not just right experiences” [NJREs]) believed to reflect an inability to use emotional experience and sensory feedback to guide behavior (Summerfeldt, 2007). Low (OCD-L) and high dysfunctional beliefs (OCD-H) OCD patient subgroups, and anxious and student comparison groups, completed measures. Scoring on the MCQ-30 differentiated OCD subgroups, although evaluations of differences and correlations with OCD symptom measures indicated that these metacognitive beliefs more so characterized the thinking of the OCD-H subgroup. Scoring on NJREs measures also differentiated OCD subgroups. NJREs scores were consistently related to OCD symptoms only for the OCD-L subgroup. Results are congruent with theoretical formulations positing that harm avoidance and feelings of incompleteness are important and distinct motivations that underlie specific variants of OCD.