Summary
Introduction and aims
Recent literature highlighted significant clinical and epidemiological overlap of Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and autism spectrum. In this perspective we aimed to evaluate the relationship between autism spectrum, OCD and social anxiety in a sample of patients with OCD with or without significant SAD symptoms.
Methods
We recruited a total sample of 56 in- or out-patients with a clinical diagnosis of OCD assessing them with the Social Phobic Spectrum – Short Version (SHY-SV), the Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum – Short Version (OBS-SV) and the Adult Autism Subthreshold Spectrum (AdAS Spectrum) questionnaires. Participants were divided in two groups: OCD and OCD with SAD group.
Results
OCD+SAD subjects scored significantly higher than OCDs in AdAS Spectrum Restricted interests and Rumination domain as well as in the questionnaire total score and in OBS-SV Repetition and automation domain as well as in its total score. Moreover, AdAS Spectrum total score was a significant positive predictor of the presence of SAD. Finally, AdAS Spectrum Restriced Interest & Rumination and OBS-SV Repetition and automation emerged as significant positive predictors of the presence of SAD.
Conclusions
Our work highlighted that subjects with OCD and clinical SAD symptoms show a higher global severity of OCD symptoms and a higher presence of autistic traits. On the other hand, SAD presence in OCD subjects seems to be statistically predicted by AdAS Spectrum but not by OBS-SV total score.
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License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright
Copyright (c) 2026 Journal of Psychopathology
How to Cite
[1]
Carpita, B., Bonelli, C., Pini, S., Parri, F. , Pronestì, C., Giovannoni, F. , Nardi, B., Ruggieri, C., Massimetti, G., Cremone, I.M. and Dell’Osso, L. 2026. Obsessive-compulsive disorder with comorbid social anxiety symptoms is a more severe presentation associated with greater autistic traits. Journal of Psychopathology. 32, 3 (Oct. 2026). DOI:https://doi.org/10.36148/2284-0249-1982.
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