Comparison of Cognitive Errors and Rumination in Obsessive-Compulsive and Social Phobia Disorders

The present research was conducted to compare cognitive errors and rumination in patients with obsessive–compulsive and social phobia disorders.
The research design was cross-sectional post event descriptive survey. The research participants included 30 patients with social phobia disorder and 30 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder who were aged between 15 and 50 years in Zanjan city, who were available samples. They were selected on the basis of psychiatrist diagnosis and structured diagnostic interviews (SCID-I) and (SCID-II), and the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Cognitive errors questionnaire and ruminative response style questionnaire were used to measure the variables.
The results, analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance, indicated that there is a significant difference with regard to the components of cognitive error between the patients belonging to the two groups (obsessive–compulsive and social phobia disorders )(P≤0.05). There was no significant difference between the mean scores of rumination components in groups’ P≤0.05 level.
According to the research findings, cognitive errors and rumination play important roles in obsessive–compulsive and social phobia disorders as experienced by both the groups. However, the patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder had more cognitive errors compared to the patients with social phobia disorder. The results confirm the equal role of rumination in the psychopathology of these two groups.