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Traumatic and Adverse Attachment Childhood Experiences are not Characteristic of OCD but of Depression in Adolescents

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Abstract

We investigated whether adverse attachment experience might contribute to the development of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). We interviewed 100 adolescents, 25 each with primary OCD, depressive disorder (DD), OCD plus DD and general population controls (CTRs) using the adult attachment interview to assess attachment experiences (AEs), including traumatic and adverse AE (TAE). Adolescents with OCD, OCD+DD and DD had little evidence of secure base/safe haven parental behaviour and their childhood attachment needs judged to be rejected as compared to the controls. Overprotection was not characteristic of OCD, and parents using the child for their own needs (elevated levels of involving/role reversal) occurred only in DD, with low levels in OCD, OCD+DD and CTR. Traumatic experiences, often multiple, and/or attachment related were reported significantly more often in the DD group, and was less common in OCD+DD, CTR and particularly in the OCD group. In OCD, little TAE was reported and adverse AE were less serious and seem unlikely to contribute directly to OCD aetiology. In DD and to some degree in OCD+DD serious AE/TAE may have some etiological significance for the depressive states.

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Abbreviations

AE:

Adverse attachment experience

TAE:

Traumatic AE

OCD:

Obsessive compulsive disorder

DD:

Depressive disorder

F:

Free/autonomous attachment

Ds:

Dismissing of attachment

E:

Enmeshed/preoccupied with childhood attachment experience

CC:

Cannot classify

U:

Unresolved with regard to loss and/or abuse

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the interviewees who told us about their lives, a task that was sometimes painful. We also wish to thank the Söderström-Königska Research Foundation for their financial support, Inger Ivarsson for transcribing the interviews and statistician Tore Wentzel-Larsen for his support on the choice of statistical methods.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Eastern and Southern Norway, Postboks 4623, Nydalen, 0405, Oslo, Norway

    Tord Ivarsson

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden

    Fanny Saavedra & Anders G. Broberg

  3. Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Pehr Granqvist

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  1. Tord Ivarsson
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  2. Fanny Saavedra
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  3. Pehr Granqvist
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  4. Anders G. Broberg
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Correspondence to Tord Ivarsson.

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Ivarsson, T., Saavedra, F., Granqvist, P. et al. Traumatic and Adverse Attachment Childhood Experiences are not Characteristic of OCD but of Depression in Adolescents. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 47, 270–280 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-015-0563-x

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