Religiosity and obsessive compulsive symptoms in a non-consulting sample of medical students

Abstract EN

he present study evaluated the relationship between religiosity and obsessive compulsive symptoms among medical students.

Methodology: One hundred and forty three students were randomly selected from a cohort of Suez Canal University medical students in the academic year 2013-2014.

All consenting participants completed a religiousness measure questionnaire and the Obsessive Compulsive Inventory- Revised (OCI-R), which were translated into Arabic.

Results: There was no statistically significant correlation between OCI-R total score and religiousness measure questionnaire subscale mean scores – each subscale individually - or even mean score of the three subscales together.

Additionally, there was no statistically significant difference between students with obsessive compulsive symptoms indicating the likely presence of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and those without such symptoms regarding increased levels of religious involvement, religious influence in daily life and religious hope respectively.

However, a statistically significant positive correlation was found between certain types of obsessive compulsive phenomenology - namely compulsive washing and obsessive subtypes - and increased levels of religious involvement, religious hope and religious influence in daily life.

Conclusion: No evidence could be found that identified religion as a causal factor for OCD.

Nevertheless, religion is a likely contributing factor more to the kind of obsessive compulsive symptomatology than to the occurrence of OCD itself