Death Anxiety in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

Abstract

Objective: Death anxiety has long been attributed a role as a psychopathologically decisive factor in the development of mental illnesses such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). For example, patients with washing compulsions associate their behavior with a fear of life-threatening diseases or patients with control compulsions report that the constant checking is driven by the fear of fatal or deadly consequences for the occupants. Method: The Bochum Questionnaire to Assess Death Anxiety and Attitudes Towards Death (BOFRETTA) was administered to 31 patients with OCD and 31 healthy volunteers within a semi-structured interview using broad psychometry. Results: OCD patients showed increased death anxiety and negative attitute to death in comparison to healthy volunteers. A significant correlation was found between BOFRETTA-anxiety and the currently present religious obsessive thoughts. Conclusions: Our investigation provides further findings on the role of death anxiety and the problematic attitude towards death in OCD patients.