Is worry a thought control strategy relevant to obsessive-compulsive disorder?

Thought control strategies are implicated in the development and maintenance of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Regarding one strategy – worry – extant data provide equivocal conclusions as to its relevance to OCD. The current study examined whether worry is an OCD-relevant thought control strategy using data from a large (N = 376) nonclinical sample. This investigation tested whether worry interacted with obsessive beliefs (perfectionism/certainty; responsibility/threat estimation; importance/control of thoughts) to predict the occurrence of ego-dystonic intrusive thoughts. As expected, worry did interact with obsessive beliefs to predict more reported intrusions. Contrary to expectations, worry interacted with all three assessed belief dimensions. These results provide support for conceptualizing worry as an OCD-relevant thought control strategy, which has both conceptual and therapeutic implications.