Emotion dysregulation and social communication problems but not ToM properties may predict obsessive-compulsive disorder symptom severity

• Published in: Nordic journal of psychiatry 2023-11, Vol.77 (8), p.778-787
• Main Authors: Öztürk, Yusuf, Özyurt, Gonca, Turan, Serkan, Tufan, Ali Evren, Akay, Aynur Pekcanlar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0803-9488; 1502-4725
• DOI: 10.1080/08039488.2023.2251953

OBJECTIVEStudies have shown that theory of mind, emotion regulation and pragmatic abilities are negatively affected in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We aimed to investigate theory of mind (ToM) abilities, social responsiveness, pragmatic language, and emotion regulation skills in children with OCD and to compare them to healthy controls.METHODSThis study was designed as a single-center, cross-sectional, case-control study. ToM abilities were evaluated via "Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test" (RMET), "Faces Test", "Faux-Pas Test", "Comprehension Test" and "Unexpected Outcomes Test". Social responsiveness, pragmatic language and emotion regulation were evaluated by Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), Children's Communication Checklist- Second Edition (CCC-2), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS). Within the study period, we enrolled 85 adolescents (42 with OCD and 43 controls).RESULTSThe OCD group performed significantly lower than healthy controls in the Faux Pass and Comprehension tests (p = 0.003 for both). We found a statistically significant difference between groups in terms of the goal, strategy, non-acceptance subscales of the DERS (p