Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Impulsivity, Anxiety, and Depression Symptoms Mediating the Relationship Between Childhood Trauma and Symptoms Severity of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Abstract

Introduction: A growing body of research associates childhood trauma with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between childhood trauma and OCD, including both its severity and OCD patients' comorbid impulsivity, ADHD, anxiety, and depressive symptoms.

Methods: A convenient sample consisting of 106 patients with OCD was given the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS), Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Barratt Impulsivity Scale-11 (BIS-11).

Results: The results showed that childhood trauma indirectly predicts the severity of OCD and directly predicts comorbidities in OCD patients, including anxiety, ADHD, WURS, and impulsivity. Patients with childhood trauma had higher WURS, BAI, and BIS-11 scores and fewer years of education. Ongoing adult ADHD was more common in individuals with childhood trauma.

Conclusion: A history of childhood trauma in OCD patients has indirect effects on the severity of OCD and depressive symptoms and is associated with more severe anxiety, higher levels of impulsivity, higher prevalence of ADHD, and lower levels of education. More research is needed to clarify the effects of childhood trauma on OCD severity and comorbidity.

Keywords: Anxiety; childhood trauma; depression; impulsivity behaviour; obsessive compulsive disorder; severity.