Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on obsessive-compulsive symptoms in the Swiss general population
Open accessAbstract
Background: In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, mental-health experts called attention to a possible deterioration of obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCSs). In particular, people suffering from a fear of contamination were considered a vulnerable population. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the change in OCSs from before to during the pandemic within the Swiss general population, and to examine a possible relationship of OCSs to stress and anxiety. Methods: This cross-sectional study was implemented as an anonymized online survey (N = 3,486). The Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R) was used to assess global OCS severity (range: 0–72, clinical cut-off > 18) and specific OCS dimensions (range: 0–12) during the second wave of the pandemic and retrospectively for before the pandemic. Participants were asked to report stress and anxiety in the previous 2 weeks before the survey. Results: Participants reported significantly higher OCI-R total scores during (12.73) compared to before the pandemic (9.04, mean delta increase: 3.69). Significantly more individuals reported an OCI-R total score exceeding the clinical cut-off during (24%) than before the pandemic (13%). OCS severity increased on all symptom dimensions, but was most pronounced on the washing dimension (all with p < 0.001). Self-reported stress and anxiety were weakly associated with differences in severity in total score and symptom dimensions (with R2 < 0.1 and p < 0.001). Conclusion: Our results indicate that the full spectrum of people with OCS should be considered as risk groups for symptom deterioration during a pandemic and when assessing its possible long-term effects of such.
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The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have led to a worsening of OCD symptoms.
“the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have exacerbated OCD symptoms.”
From ØCD: protocol for the development and evaluation of a cognitive-behavioral prevention program for obsessive-compulsive disorder (2024) · cites this paper as [25]
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- Authors
- Otte, J., Schicktanz, N., & Bentz, D.
- Affiliations
- University of Basel (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Bentz, Dorothée
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2023-06-20
- Volume
- 14
- Pages
- 1071205-1071205
- ISSN
- 1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10318181
- OpenAlex
- W4381434027
- Cited by
- 7
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 2.04
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Universität Basel
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, fear of contamination, hand washing, stress, anxiety, mental health deterioration, general population, Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised
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