A Comparison of Manifestations and Impact of Reassurance Seeking among Japanese Individuals with OCD and Depression.

BACKGROUND One of the most common interpersonal reactions to threat and anxiety is to seek reassurance from a trusted person. The Reassurance Seeking Questionnaire (ReSQ) measures several key aspects of reassurance seeking behaviour, including frequency, trust of sources, intensity, carefulness, and the emotional consequences of reassurance seeking. AIMS The current study compares patterns and consequences of reassurance seeking in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and depression. METHOD ReSQ scores were compared for three groups: 32 individuals with OCD, 17 individuals with depression, and 24 healthy comparison participants. RESULTS We found that individuals with OCD tended to seek reassurance more intensely and employ self-reassurance more frequently than individuals with depression or healthy participants, and that if reassurance was not provided, they tended to feel a greater urge to seek additional reassurance. CONCLUSIONS This study is the first to quantitatively elucidate differences in reassurance seeking between OCD and depression.