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Carer's perception of and reaction to reassurance seeking in obsessive compulsive disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2017

Osamu Kobori ,
Paul M. Salkovskis ,
Rowena Pagdin ,
Julie Read  and
Brynjar Halldorsson
Osamu Kobori*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Swansea University, UK
Paul M. Salkovskis
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Bath, UK
Rowena Pagdin
Affiliation:
Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Julie Read
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK
Brynjar Halldorsson
Affiliation:
School of Psychology and Clinical Language Science, University of Reading, UK
*
*Correspondence to Osamu Kobori, Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK. E-mail: O.Kobori@swansea.ac.uk
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Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to explore the experience of being asked for reassurance from the perspective of carers of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) sufferers, and to examine its relationship to sufferers’ reassurance seeking by a direct comparison with data obtained from the person they normally offer reassurance to. Forty-two individuals with OCD and their carers completed alternate versions of the Reassurance Seeking Questionnaire. Result suggest that carers report most commonly providing reassurance when asked to do so, and the frequency of their reassurance provision is associated with how carefully sufferers seek reassurance, rather than their OCD symptom severity. The carer's perspectives on the impact of reassurance provision was accurate; both sufferers and carers perceive that reassurance works only temporarily, but even if the anxiety-relieving effect of reassurance decreases in the medium term, it is likely to be perceived as beneficial because carers accurately perceived that sufferers would feel much worse if they refused to provide reassurance. The present study is the first to quantitatively investigate carer's experiences of reassurance provision, and elucidate why carers feel the need to provide it.

Keywords

reassurance seekingcarersobsessive compulsive disorderfamily accommodation
Type
Original Research
Information
the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist , Volume 10 , 2017 , e7
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2017 

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References

Suggested further reading

Challacombe, F, Oldfield, VB, Salkovskis, PM (2011). Break Free From OCD: Overcoming Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with CBT. Random House.Google Scholar
Halldorsson, B, Salkovkis, PM, Kobori, O, Pagdin, R (2016). I do not know what else to do: Caregivers’ perspective on reassurance seeking in OCD. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders 8, 21–30.Google Scholar
Kobori, O, Salkovskis, PM, Read, J, Lounes, N, Wong, V. (2012). A qualitative study of the investigation of reassurance seeking in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders 1, 25–32.Google Scholar

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